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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.

A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.

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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Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game (and Deflategate discussion)

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  • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

    So the fall guy in the end, wasn't a guy but a sauna... The escape goat...
    Originally posted by Natston;n3510291
    I want the people to know that they still have 2 out of the 3 T.J.s working for them, and that ain't bad...

    Comment


    • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

      Originally posted by Slick Pinkham View Post
      So every wrestler and boxer in human history is therefore a cheater if they did not weigh in 5 minutes before their match. That is some wonderful logic.

      Written rules have meaning. Those who follow them are not cheating. If something seems unfair, you re-write the rule. Then you do not go back in history and apply your new rule to previous legal practices.
      C'mon the rules for boxing and wrestling have zero relevance to the nfl. Seriously. You can't make this up as you go along. Does anyone think that those sports are completely legit?

      Doing anything to the ball in baseball gets you thrown out of the game.

      Comment


      • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

        The Pats balls being used DURING the game were not legal. That's cheating. No other way to slice it. They bring their own balls so they're responsible for making sure they're legal for play. Not legal during inspection, legal DURING PLAY. Pretty cut and dried to me.

        Comment


        • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

          Footballs are only tested once every game and are certified legal for play. After that, mother nature takes over. Nothing you can do about it. Sorry it makes you so butthurt, but the NFL is about to CLEAR the Patriots of ANY AND ALL ALLEGATIONS OF WRONGDOING. This mystery is over.
          The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

          Comment


          • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

            Does anyone think that those sports are completely legit.
            last I checked, high school, college, and OLYMPIC wrestling and boxing are 100% legit. Why are they not? Is Olympic swimming legit? Of course. No IDEA what you are getting at.
            The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

            Comment


            • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

              Originally posted by Slick Pinkham View Post
              Footballs are only tested once every game and are certified legal for play. After that, mother nature takes over. Nothing you can do about it. Sorry it makes you so butthurt, but the NFL is about to CLEAR the Patriots of ANY AND ALL ALLEGATIONS OF WRONGDOING. This mystery is over.
              So the 12th ball just didn't feel like conforming to the laws of physics?

              Comment


              • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

                Why aren't these athletes weighed right before their match? Obviously the early pre-weighing is designed to allow them to add extra weight so the athletes coming to their matches can be well above the designated weight. Yes it's acceptable because the rules ALLOW for illlegitimate weights. You are correct that if they make a 147 weight they may be 155 pounds at the match. Wrestling allows that because BOTH athletes can go over the limit skirting the rule.

                What is not ok is that one team obeys the rule and the other team doesn't. The colts balls were legitimate and the pats balls weren't. I can't make that discrepancy any clearer to you that it is not acceptable. If the colts were more evenly matched the uproar which is on every news station ad nauseum would be even greater.

                Why is this important? The QB can get a better grip on the ball especially in the really cold weather; the fumbling RBs would fumble less with a deflated ball.
                The pats if they win the SB should win by being a better team and not taking advantage of every Belichick loophole. Surely their reps have diminished the team regardless of how this turns out.

                Even if the nfl finds no wrong doing most will still believe the pats cheated yet once again.

                Comment


                • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

                  Originally posted by Slick Pinkham View Post
                  Footballs are only tested once every game and are certified legal for play. After that, mother nature takes over. Nothing you can do about it. Sorry it makes you so butthurt, but the NFL is about to CLEAR the Patriots of ANY AND ALL ALLEGATIONS OF WRONGDOING. This mystery is over.

                  Wow the Patriots won't get punished by the NFL over this?

                  No shyt even Stevie Wonder saw this coming they had to find a way to kill this story before the Super Bowl began. If the weather was the main culprit how come this wasn't mentioned during the initial press conference by Darth Hoodie?

                  Personally I don't care either way since the Colts were out played and out matched in that game regardless of the pressure of those balls but to act as if the Patriots won't be looked at from suspicion at the very least from here on out now that they're "cleared" is rather laughable.

                  The accusation alone is damaging especially based on past history.

                  Comment


                  • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

                    The charge was that the Patriots tampered with footballs after they were inspected. I can't make that charge any clearer to you. If you do not understand it, or want to invent some new bogeyman charge, go right ahead into your fantasyland. Two teams submitted footballs legally that were declared legal to play with and that were not tampered with.

                    The verdict is not going to be "we don't know" or "not so bad"

                    It is going to be "innocent of all charges, and further we regret the unwarranted scrutiny you have had to endure"
                    Last edited by Slick Pinkham; 01-24-2015, 08:10 PM.
                    The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

                    Comment


                    • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

                      Originally posted by LuckSwagger View Post
                      So the 12th ball just didn't feel like conforming to the laws of physics?
                      it is obvious you did not listen to the press conference, read the transcript, or anything

                      he DIRECTLY answered your question, though:

                      “Clearly, all footballs are different. So footballs that come out of a similar pack, a similar box, a similar preparation, each football has its own unique characteristics because it’s not a man-made piece of equipment. It’s an animal skin. It’s a bladder. It’s stitching. It’s laces. And each one has its own unique characteristics. Whatever you do with that football, if you do the same with another one, it might be close, but there’s a variance between each individual football. Footballs do not get measured during the game. We have no way of knowing until we went through this exercise that this was really taking place, so when we hand the footballs to the officials, the officials put them at whatever they put them at, but let’s just say it’s 12.5 [PSI]. That’s where they put them and the air pressure at that point from then on until the end of the game, we have no knowledge of. And honestly, it’s never been a concern. What is a concern is the texture of the footballs, and again that is a point that Tom hit on hard on Thursday.


                      if you care to read what he said instead of just criticizing blindly, I can help you:
                      http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/new-e...f-the-patriots
                      The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

                      Comment


                      • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

                        Q: Any chance Walt Anderson didn’t stick a pressure gauge in each of the 24 or 36 footballs? Maybe he just did the squeeze test?

                        JD: “They have a gauge and they have to check every football. It’s usually given to the youngest or newest member of the crew — it’s almost like a rite of passage into the NFL. During the playoffs, it’s usually an alternate official, so it’s a veteran official that does it. I would not even question whether they did or not. It’s just something you do, like putting your pants on or getting ready for the game.”


                        http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/20...wpL/story.html

                        Comment


                        • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

                          Q: So how common is it for something like this to pop up?

                          JD: “In 23 years, this is the first time other than with a kicking football. We used to have some issues with kickers, they do strange things with footballs, and that’s why the competition committee requires the manufacturer to send a package of footballs directly to the officials in their hotel. And then the officials never lose sight of those footballs, so the players don’t have any access to kicking balls, ever.”


                          Q: That’s a good point. What is the protocol for the kicking balls on game day?


                          JD: “Those are opened up in the locker room by the officials. They are scrubbed down and checked for pressure, then kept under the watchful eye of the kicking-ball coordinator. That’s an individual who is hired by the league specifically to handle the kicking balls, and that’s all he does. It’s looking like this is the wave of the future. The NFL may have to hire ballboy coordinators to handle all the footballs.”
                          http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/20...wpL/story.html

                          Comment


                          • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

                            Just random

                            This trip to the Super Bowl will make a nice dent in the Seahawks’ wallets.

                            Since Washington doesn’t have state income tax, the state of Arizona is going to hit up the Seahawks on the “jock tax,” or taxing them at the state income rate of 4.54 percent for the number of days they work in the state of Arizona (it will be 10 this year — eight for the Super Bowl, and two for their regular-season meeting with the Cardinals).


                            Since Massachusetts has a 5.15 percent income tax, any Patriots who are Massachusetts residents will get a full tax credit for time worked in Arizona (seven days this week).


                            So for example, according to numbers crunched by sports tax accountant Robert Raiola of O’Connor Davies (@SportsTaxMan), Richard Sherman will pay about $19,500 in extra taxes this week based on his $10 million salary and playoff bonuses, and if Russell Wilson gets a big contract extension later this year paying him $20 million, he would pay almost $39,000 in taxes.

                            Players on the winning team get $97,000, and those on the losing team get $49,000.

                            Comment


                            • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

                              Originally posted by Dan Wetzel,Yahoo
                              Belichick clearly theorized why NE's footballs would measure different than Indy's. You can disagree, but I'm baffled why people say it hasn't been addressed
                              https://twitter.com/DanWetzel
                              The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

                              Comment


                              • Re: Colts vs Pats AFC Title Game

                                There are a couple issues with the weather theory. The first is of course the Colts footballs being in compliance as has been mentioned earlier. Let's put that aside for the moment.

                                The second problem is this. The Patriots balls were re-inflated at halftime. Even though the weather was the same or likely even worse in the second half than it had been in the first, they remained properly inflated after the game. Why didn't the weather affect them then like it apparently had in the first half?

                                Comment

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