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The Rules of Pacers Digest

Hello everyone,

Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.

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Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.

Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.

Rule #1

Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:

"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"

"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"

"He/she is just delusional"

"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"

"I'm going to take a moment to point and / laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"

"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.

We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.

Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.

That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.

A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.

There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.

Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.

In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.

Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.

If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!

All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.

Rule #2

If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.

The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.

The right places to do so are:

A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.

B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.

If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.

Rule #3

If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.

When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.

B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.

To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!

Rule #4

Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

Rule #5

When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.

An example:

If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star

Rule #6

We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.

The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

Rule #7

Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

Rule #8

We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

Rule #9

Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.

Rule #10

We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.

Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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Longtime boxing announcer Nick Charles is dying

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  • Longtime boxing announcer Nick Charles is dying

    http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/mo...ing_soul.html#

    Longtime boxing announcer Nick Charles, 64, calls final bout while battling Stage 4 bladder cancer
    Tim Smith

    Sunday, March 27th 2011, 4:00 AM


    CNNNick Charles calls his final boxing match on Saturday night. Related NewsRaissman: Tyson would be perfect 'After Dark'Raissman: Jets supply cast of characters for 'Hard Knocks'ATLANTIC CITY - Nick Charles, working ringside at the small room inside Boardwalk Hall, called his last boxing match Saturday night. He won't ever do it again.

    It's not because Charles is retiring. It's not because he's being fired and drummed out of the broadcasting business.

    Charles, 64, has Stage 4 bladder cancer and literally has a few weeks at most to live.

    Working one last boxing broadcast was a dying wish from a man whose fight with cancer has led him to epitomize the strength and bravery that he has witnessed inside the ring in more than three decades of calling matches.

    Charles did most of his play-by-play work for Showtime, but it was its rival, HBO, that granted him his wish, allowing him to call the first match of a doubleheader on its "Boxing After Dark" broadcast Saturday night. Mikey Garcia (25-0, 21 KOs) stopped Matt Remillard on a 10th-round TKO after Remillard (23-1, 13 KOs), who was knocked down three times in featherweight the fight, failed to come out for the 11th round in Charles' bout. In the main event, Yuriorkis Gamboa (20-0, 16 KOs) knocked down Jorge Solis (40-3-2, 29 KOs) four times before stopping him at 1:31 of the fourth round to retain the IBF featherweight title.

    Charles' participation came about when Rick Bernstein, the executive producer of HBO boxing broadcasts, was on the train heading into work one morning and read a story on the announcer and his battle with cancer in Sports Illustrated. He was touched by a comment from Charles in the article that he'd like to cover one more fight for television before he died, but that it probably wouldn't happen. Bernstein and Charles were acquainted because Charles had been the host for some of the HBO pay-per-view shows in the 1990s.

    Bernstein was so moved by the comment that he went to Ross Greenburg, HBO Sports president, and told him he was going to use Charles on the Garcia-Remillard fight. Greenburg agreed that they should. After determining that Charles would be available and strong enough to work, they finalized the details.

    Charles last worked a fight on Dec. 4 in Anaheim, calling the match between Humberto Soto and Urbano Antillon on a Top Rank Promotions pay-per-view. It was an all-action bout that many thought was the 2010 Fight of the Year.

    There are very few acts of kindness in boxing, because the business is so cutthroat. Bernstein and Greenburg are to be applauded for granting Charles a dying wish. It is truly a humane act in a cruel world.

    It was an exhausting weekend in Atlantic City for Charles, who lives in Santa Fe, N.M., with his beloved wife of 14 years, Cory, and cherished 5-year-old daughter, Giovanna. He had to take two flights and an hour-long car ride to reach AC. On Friday, he went through a day of interviews with the fighters and production meetings.

    He threw himself into the work, doing all the necessary research and planning to make the broadcast go smoothly. He was exhausted, but happy to be back in the mix for one last time.

    Charles is the ultimate professional, even when he's thrown a curveball.

    I witnessed that firsthand. Before Mike Tyson fought Julius Francis in England, his PR people had set up a few one-on-one interviews with Tyson in a hotel ballroom where he was working out a few days before the fight. I was the only U.S. newspaper reporter that Tyson would talk to during that session. Charles, as part of the Showtime broadcast team, was also slated to interview Tyson.

    Tyson talked to me first. The interview went well, until the end. An innocent question about sightseeing in London sent Tyson on an emotional roller coaster. The last stop was screaming anger as Tyson had to be restrained by his handlers as he unleashed a torrent of expletives my way.

    Charles, who was setting up for his interview just across the room, witnessed the end of the tirade. He walked over to me and said, "Thanks for warming him up for me."

    It is easy to feel sorry for Charles. You wouldn't be human if you didn't. But we should all celebrate his bravery, his courage and his strength in the face of the finality of the dreadful disease that has stricken him. And we should applaud those who are willing to grant a dying man an opportunity to live out his dream one last time.

    n For more on the HBO bouts, go to nydailynews.com/sports

  • #2
    Re: Longtime boxing announcer Nick Charles is dying

    http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/06/25/nic...html?hpt=hp_c1

    (CNN) -- Nick Charles, who started off as a taxi driver and later became the first sports anchor at CNN, died Saturday after battling bladder cancer since 2009. He was 64.

    Charles died peacefully, looking out at the spectacular land that drew him to Santa Fe, New Mexico, his wife, Cory, said.

    Charles began at CNN on the network's first day, June 1, 1980, and covered nearly every sporting event over the years.

    He was paired with Fred Hickman for most of the next two decades on "Sports Tonight," a show that beat ESPN in ratings when the upstarts were battling for viewers. To this day, he and Hickman remain one of the longest-lasting anchor duos in television.

    Topps, the trading-card company, put Charles' million-dollar smile on a bubble gum card, a rarity for a television personality. People magazine once dubbed him one of the most handsome men in America.

    "Nick was your friend from the moment you met him -- and he stayed your friend forever," said Rick Davis, one of Charles' producers at CNN in the 1980s. "All of us who had the very good fortune to have been his friend have so much to remember about how he touched our lives in his own special way," said Davis, who is CNN's executive vice president of News Standards and Practices.

    At his home in Santa Fe recently, Charles pointed to his signature mop of curly black hair as he scrolled through photographs of his on-air days. "Look at that thing," he said with a laugh. "It's my Billy Ray Cyrus mullet."

    Facing death, Charles embraced life

    While the world knew Charles for his sportscaster days, it was his battle with cancer that inspired tens of thousands of people. In a recent CNN.com article, he talked openly about the dying process and preparing his family for when he was gone. He made birthday video diaries for his 5-year-old daughter, Giovanna, in the years to come.

    "This is a gift from God where I need to build these memories for her, so that I'm not a blur," he said. "I feel that when I go, that I'm going to prepare a place for my daughter and my wife. I'm going to be in their heart and soul. I tell them that every day."

    His message, he said, is to "never give up on life."

    "It's an imperfect world, but, boy, it's still beautiful."

    "What is life?" he said. "It's 20 percent what happens to you and 80 percent how you react to it."

    "Find that little kernel every day that brings you pleasure and joy -- and fasten onto that. That's what's going to make life worth living. Always look for the best."

    "When you're contemplating your mortality and your life," he said, "those are the things I reflect on."



    April: Nick Charles hoped for miracle

    April: Anchor embraced life facing death

    Former CNN anchor Nick Charles dies

    Colleagues remember Nick Charles The son of a taxi driver who was mostly absent from his life, Nicholas Charles Nickeas grew up poor in inner-city Chicago. In grade school, during the frigid winters when his dad didn't pay the heat bills, Charles would curl up in bed with his mother and brother to stay warm.

    He struggled in high school. He had no mentors. He was too busy working late-night jobs at produce docks in desolate Chicago neighborhoods. Once, his boss pointed to mounds of rat feces, threw lye all over the floor and handed the 17-year-old Charles a pair of gloves, rubber boots and a hoe.

    He scrubbed away, but thought to himself: "I'll never be trapped again in life. Never. Never."

    "That was a watershed, life-changing moment for me. It really drove me to the point where I had focus in my life."

    He eventually went to Columbia College Chicago, where he studied communications and journalism.

    He drove a taxi to help pay for college. Even in the driver's seat, he was practicing for his broadcast career.

    "I wasn't nosey, but just curious about people's life. I'd ask, 'How'd you get to this country? What was the spark that motivated you in life?' ... I don't know what it was, but people would open up."

    Charles was still driving taxis in the fall of 1970 when he auditioned for his first television job, at WICS in Springfield, Illinois.

    Two days later, he got the job. He took a pay cut to enter the television business: $130 a week as a sports anchor, compared with $200 driving a taxi.

    He was told by his news director that his Greek name was too ethnic and to change it to something more "vanilla."

    "Nick Nickeas, sounds like you got a stutter, too," the news director added.

    At the age of 24, Nick Charles was born. He covered sports for WICS, before the job rolled into just about anything, from farm reports to fluff. A wolf once urinated on his leg: "The mother wolf was a little mad. We got a little too close to her cubs."

    From Springfield, he worked at local stations in Baltimore and Washington before joining CNN.

    And it's at CNN where he shined.

    In his prime, he and Hickman had chemistry, charisma and dynamism -- a duo of boundless energy. The two were revolutionary for their time, a white and black man sitting side-by-side live every night in studios from the once-segregated South.

    "We just clicked from the very beginning," Hickman said in an interview before Charles' death. "In television, you always have personality conflicts. Nick and I never had one. Nick and I have always had a tremendous relationship."

    Hickman's favorite memory with his long-time friend came in the 1980s when they arrived in Los Angeles for the Cable Ace Awards. Stretch limousines and other luxurious cars were parked everywhere. "We pulled up in a red Ford Tempo," Hickman said with a laugh.

    His favorite line ever uttered by Charles came after Mike Tyson demolished an opponent: "Tyson tore his meat house down."

    "I still don't know what it means," Hickman said, "but I love it."

    Charles covered everything from the Olympics to the Super Bowl to the Kentucky Derby. But boxing was his passion.

    He covered some of the most classic boxing matches -- when Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear, when Roberto Duran quit and told Sugar Ray Leonard, "No mas."

    Seeing an undefeated Tyson get knocked out by Buster Douglas in Tokyo in 1990 was epic.

    "That night was magical," Charles said. "It speaks to the uncertainty, that anybody's cloak of invincibility can be ripped away."

    Charles would cry when he talked about the strength of boxers, because when he looked at the ring, he saw young men like him from the inner city who had to rely on themselves to reach success.

    "You have to walk down that alley way to the ring," he said. "You're going to get hit. You have to take pain to get it. You have to fight through fear."

    "There's just such an empathy I have for these guys. They want it so badly."

    Tyson on Saturday sent a message on Twitter: "Mourning the loss of a true warrior. My friend & brother, Nick Charles."

    In an interview in March, Charles had said he hoped to make it to one more Easter, to see his dream home completed in May, to see his daughter play the piano, to reach his 65th birthday on June 30. He made three of those four goals.

    "If I don't make it," he said, "there's no need for any pity parties."

    "People won't remember who you are or what you said," he said. "It's really about: Are you going to be remembered as a good person?"

    "That's victory to me. That's success."

    Charles is survived by his wife, Cory, of 13 years and their daughter, Giovanna. He has three children from two previous marriages: Jason, 39; Melissa, 36; and Katie, 24.

    "His passing is a loss to CNN, to the sports world and to the fans and friends everywhere who were with him to the end of his extraordinary life," said Jim Walton, Charles' field producer in his early days and current president of CNN Worldwide.

    Nick Charles and his family formed the "Embrace Life" project to help stop child trafficking and abuse, increase access to education and allow children to embrace life. Working with the humanitarian organization World Vision and the TEACH NOW: Preventing Child Labor in the Philippines project, the family welcomes support here: www.worldvision.org/EmbraceLife.

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