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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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I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

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  • I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

    We are slightly over half way through this season. Knowing what you know right now and what you predict to come the rest of this season what do you truly think will be the outcome if the Pacers stand pat and go into next season with minimal change and adding a draft pick (let's say pick between 8-11. For arguments sake let's say we let Copeland and Allen walk but we retain Scola.
    106
    With the return of a healthy Paul George we are right back to the top of the east & title contender
    12.26%
    13
    We will be a deep playoff team and will finish in the top 3 in the east
    30.19%
    32
    Father time will have overtaken West and Roy will still be Roy, we wil make the playoffs but will be an early out with the inevitable rebuild looming
    50.00%
    53
    Paul is back and healthy but even he isn't good enough to fix the dramatic lack of talent, we might get the 7th or 8th seed but only because the east sucks
    7.55%
    8

    The poll is expired.



    Basketball isn't played with computers, spreadsheets, and simulations. ChicagoJ 4/21/13

  • #2
    Re: I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

    The Pacers with an injury history of the last couple seasons before this I think would win somewhere around 41 games, be a .500 team maybe a couple games over, or a couple games under. It's pretty easy to get back up into the playoffs in the East and a fully healthy PG and George Hill would do that, plus a decent draft pick.
    "It's just unfortunate that we've been penalized so much this year and nothing has happened to the Pistons, the Palace or the city of Detroit," he said. "It's almost like it's always our fault. The league knows it. They should be ashamed of themselves to let the security be as lax as it is around here."

    ----------------- Reggie Miller

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    • #3
      Re: I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

      I don't see how we'll be better than Atlanta, Washington, or Cleveland in 2015-2016, barring major changes. 4th through 7th seems like the most likely scenario with this team, if no major changes are made.
      Last edited by PacersHomer; 01-25-2015, 02:11 AM.

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      • #4
        Re: I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

        Originally posted by Peck View Post
        We are slightly over half way through this season. Knowing what you know right now and what you predict to come the rest of this season what do you truly think will be the outcome if the Pacers stand pat and go into next season with minimal change and adding a draft pick (let's say pick between 8-11.
        I assume that your scenario would include a healthy ( knock on wood ) return the likely core of:

        GH / PG13 / Solo / West / Hibbert / Miles / Mahinmi / Rudez

        while not knowing who we will draft in the 1st round and that we may or may not re-sign Lavoy?

        If so, then I would say that we are stuck somewhere in between Option 3 and 4 ( the "Father Time" option and hopefully make the "7th and 8th" spot in the East ).

        By no means do I think that we are championship caliber. I know that it may suck to many...cuz they don't think that there is any point to make any type of Playoff run. I think that we will make the Playoffs while earning one of the lower-half seeds in the East and depending on how healthy our roster is and what other minor changes occur ( basically how we fill the remaining backup spots ). IMHO, we can at least be a competitive Team 5 to 8 seeded Playoff Team in the East ( even if it means losing in the 1st round ).

        There is an option to try to completely re-build the roster now, but I don't see the point to trade Hibbert while his value is low.....I don't mind trading West; but at best, I don't think that we can get anything more than a Salary Dump for him...nor do I think that it's wise to trade GH. So the only options that we have to improve the roster ( trade GH/West/Hibbert ) will get us ( at most IMHO ) Salary Cap Space to sign Free Agents during a rather shallow Free Agent pool in the Summer of 2015. We can completely re-tool in the Summer of 2015....the problem is that we won't have much to work with....we will be stuck with trying to sign mediocre FAs ( we can't afford to re-sign Dragic, Milsap and Monroe aren't going anywhere and RJ will re-sign with whatever Team he is traded to in the next 3 weeks ).

        With that said.....I'm okay with "Standing Pat" while making minor changes, make as deep of a Playoff run as we can and then I think that if Bird exercises some patience.....we can make a major re-tool of the Roster in the 2016-2017 Offseason.

        Originally posted by Peck
        For arguments sake let's say we let Copeland and Allen walk but we retain Scola.
        Do you mean let Scola walk and retain Lavoy?

        Cuz I don't see any reason to keep Scola while letting Lavoy walk.
        Last edited by CableKC; 01-25-2015, 03:53 AM.
        Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

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        • #5
          Re: I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

          I think we will see some big changes in the offseason. Either Roy or David has to go. You can't be good with two slow plodding frontcourt players. I think it is time for David to retire and we need to get younger and more skilled at the 4. I like George Hill, Paul George and Roy at their positions. If we can upgrade the 4 spot and the starting 2 spot we could be good next year. We should have descent draft picks next year so addressing one need in the draft is a real possibility.

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          • #6
            Re: I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

            I've been thinking about where this team stands and where we will be over the next few years or so during this losing streak. I honestly feel like some people are blowing things out of proportion. I mean I get it, this team right now sucks and they are very hard to watch. I can kind of understand people losing hope for the future and wanting to basically blow it all up and everything. I don't even necessarily disagree with some things that have been brought up. I think it's easy to see that this team has basically checked out mentally, maybe you could make an exception for a few guys.

            However, I think the simple fact that Paul George will be back will cure a lot of things and some underestimate what it could do for the whole team from a sheer mental standpoint. Most of us probably won't care how bad this year's team was by the beginning of next year.

            I'll say deep playoff team and top 3 seed in the East. Maybe that's being too optimistic, but I have faith that the front office will make the right decisions this offseason.

            Also, for what it's worth, I hope we let Scola and Cope go at least. I don't see much point in keeping them around. Allen and Sloan might look elsewhere due to lack of playing time this year. I like Sloan, but won't be too upset if he goes. I hope we can find a way to keep LaVoy, I would like to see more of him and Ian playing together. That's all I will touch on as far as roster moves I guess, considering we don't know who will be traded and whatnot.

            Sorry if this doesn't truly follow the thread guidelines, but I felt this might be the best place to get some of these thoughts out.
            Last edited by PGisthefuture; 01-25-2015, 05:09 AM.

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            • #7
              Re: I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

              I think option 3 and 4 are closest. Aging West, Roy is Roy.... PG won't be enough (let alone a rusty, coming off injury, PG) but I think we'd probably 'experience' our way thru the 1st round and lose in the 2nd round.
              Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.

              ------

              "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork."

              -John Wooden

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              • #8
                Re: I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

                I think we are a playoff team, but not much more. Paul is great, but he is not Kevin Durant or Lebron James. I think George Hill is a very solid point guard and Solomon Hill as well as Ian Mahinmi are good backup role players. Roy and his mental state, West and Scola with their lack of athleticism and the rest of our players are big liabilities. Even when completely healthy I see us behind Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, and Toronto at the very least. The good news is that we still play in the east, which means the playoffs are doable, but I am not betting the ranch on a deep run with the team as presently constructed.
                Last edited by joew8302; 01-25-2015, 08:44 AM.

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                • #9
                  Re: I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

                  As I've said elsewhere, I get we aren't invested beyond this year and he's long in the tooth, but Scola (given his situation, i.e. limited minutes) has been the best PF on the roster this season. I have no problem continuing with Sloan for point guard depth. He's got flaws, but for depth very good, and he's obviously worked tremendously hard to get to this point.

                  As to the OP, I'd say we're a 4 to 6 seed, but not a legit contender, ECF or NBA.
                  Last edited by D-BONE; 01-25-2015, 09:15 AM.
                  I'd rather die standing up than live on my knees.

                  -Emiliano Zapata

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                  • #10
                    Re: I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

                    Originally posted by D-BONE View Post
                    As I've said elsewhere, I get we aren't invested beyond this year and he's long in the tooth, but Scola (given his situation, i.e. limited minutes) has been the best PF on the roster this season. I have no problem continuing with Sloan for point guard depth. He's got flaws, but for depth very good, and he's obviously worked tremendously hard to get to this point.

                    As to the OP, I'd say we're a 4 to 6 seed, but not a legit contender, ECF or NBA.
                    It sucks that the Scola we have experienced most of this season was so rarely present last year during the collapse and during the playoffs.

                    Not really an option in the poll but I'm going with as high as a 3 seed (depending on what happens with Love in Cleve.) down to a 5 seed and a very tough 6 or 7 game out in the 2nd round. The flaws and weak links are pretty obvious with this group but assuming no major injuries this team is still built for the 7-game playoff grind.

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                    • #11
                      Re: I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

                      It really depends on how we fill out the roster. Getting West's replacement and let West mentor him for a year would help.

                      How much will Solo improve in the off season? Who will be the backup PG? Will we get an athletic backup wing? Will Rudez figure out how to compensate for his slowness and become an adequate defender?

                      I think we could finish anywhere from 3-7 in the conference and depending on our seed we could lose in the first round or possibly....but unlikely make the ECF. Most likely we are the 4 or 5 seed and lose in the second round.

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                      • #12
                        Re: I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

                        The east is still bad, but there are more contenders for the ECF than in recent years. This will push us down to the middle of the pack of playoff teams and possibly to the 7 or 8 seed area depending on how Paul rebounds from injury.

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                        • #13
                          Re: I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

                          Your poll is very tilted toward failure. Why is there not an answer like " We will have a major overhaul, add 2 very good free agents and move back into prominence in the NBA" instead of gloom and doom. This is very typical of the Board and it's participants in todays world. Pick someone on the team or pick the team and bash them. It's so easy and the "IN" thing to do. Typical MOB mentality. This is my opinion and yes, I am a diehard Pacer fan. I have been since the 60's and will be until I die and maybe a few days after. I know it is your "right" to express your opinion but what a life you must have if the highlight of your day is to be able to find something negative to say. Opinion expressed, rant over...
                          I would rather be the hammer than the nail

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                          • #14
                            Re: I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

                            Once you make the playoffs, it's a whole new ball game. If we're a top 5 seed in the East next year, I like our chances to make a run and compete based on the experience our players have. I can see next year being similar to the 2012-13 season where we started off a little slow and then gained momentum and carried that into our playoff run.

                            Another thing to keep in mind is we have no idea what the East will look like next year. Sure teams like Washington and Atlanta may look good this year, but as Pacers fans we should know best what an injury or rash of injuries can do to a team that was good the previous year.

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                            • #15
                              Re: I would like to get an honest feeling of the board

                              If we trade West at the deadline for cap space why wouldn't Roy just opt out to get a better long term contract rather than stay another year. He doesn't have to stay with a team that needs to rebuild so while he may not get big dollars/year he could guarantee another 50M over 5-6 years. Roy knows that the team has found fault with him in the past so I'm guessing that we could possibly lose both these guys.

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