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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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Indycar 2016 Season Thread

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  • #16
    Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

    If practice is any indication, the race will be great.
    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

    Comment


    • #17
      Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

      The race is close enough to where we can start looking at the weather forecast.

      For Speedway, IN, weather.com is saying high of 86, partly cloudy, with a 20% chance of rain. That would be a pretty hot one if true, but it would also seem like a miracle given how much rain this part of the country has had lately. Hopefully those rain chances stay low. Looks like it's going to rain pretty heavy on Thursday and Friday, so hopefully it all gets out of here.

      Comment


      • #18
        Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

        Hopefully the weather holds. It has been raining here in DC constantly for a few weeks until today, which has been the first truly sunny day we've had in what feels like a long time. My wife's birthday was last week and we couldn't even go out and really do anything because the weather was so awful. I have attended probably 15 Indy 500's in my life but this will be a special one and I am hoping the weather holds! Especially what I paid for my flight, sheesh.

        Comment


        • #19
          Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

          Now the forecast for Speedway has risen to 88. Looks like we might be in for a scorcher. Can't wait to attend my 19th straight contest.

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

            I can almost guarantee we'll be in that mode where there is a chance of intermittent, scattered showers in central Indiana. Hazy, humid, typical Indiana weather forecast when it gets down to it. It won't be that there's a system moving thru but instead just favorable conditions for pop up showers/storms. It could be that Greenwood will be drenched in a downpour and IMS hazy sunshine. Or vice versa.
            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

            Comment


            • #21
              Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

              Originally posted by Bball View Post
              I can almost guarantee we'll be in that mode where there is a chance of intermittent, scattered showers in central Indiana. Hazy, humid, typical Indiana weather forecast when it gets down to it. It won't be that there's a system moving thru but instead just favorable conditions for pop up showers/storms. It could be that Greenwood will be drenched in a downpour and IMS hazy sunshine. Or vice versa.
              We've had 8 straight years of dry races. Sooner or later the luck will run out. Nothing is worse than waiting around and watching them try that track for hours on end.

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

                Reading some of the doomsday pessimists saying "Yeah, this year will be great but it'll really fall off next year.... The 100th year is a draw... but now what?" it hit me...

                Next year they will be teasing and going for the track record. That's going to be the next thing to maintain interest they will push.
                They'd planned it for this year. They hoped to sneak up on it last year and then get there all the way this year. But the flying cars intervened and scared them away from it last season and set them back. They had to sort out the cars going airborne at speed in a spin. But now they've mostly got the flying cars issue sorted out as far as qualifying goes. It's still possible to climb someone's tire and be launched but that won't happen in qualifying.
                And race speeds don't need to be the same as qualifying speeds.

                So I bet we'll see them pushing the track record next year. Whether they just get close and milk it a couple of years is a question mark but I bet the potential will be there if conditions are right. And if conditions are not right, they'll be in the same zip code as the record which will keep people talking and interested. We'll see the record speed 'unofficially' broken in practice with a tow and that will feed the media machine "can they do it?".

                That's my prediction. I don't think IMS is going back to a ghost town anywhere soon.

                I DO think they better keep in mind that the aerokits are breaking the perception that this is spec racing. Different engines and different bodywork. AND the media touting the two manufacturers and constantly bringing up gains and struggles by each badge. I think that stuff matters. Even if it's more to create an illusion this isn't spec racing, it breaks that perception.

                I hope whatever they ultimately decide on the aerokits for next season still has some differentiation even if it's only aesthetic. Although, I'm not sure how possible 'only aesthetic' really is. But let's not go back to where the only difference is the shape of the mirrors!

                And speaking of aero... I'm not convinced that Honda's aero has really been the problem anyway. I'm leaning towards thinking Chevy either had a better engine, or better ECM programming to give them especially a qualifying advantage. Meanwhile, it forced the Honda teams to work harder to be competitive, and now that their qualifying engine has caught up, they have more knowledge about their setups because of all that hard work.

                Look at Penske in '94 and '95. His Mercedez engines were so powerful it let them drive thru setup issues by sheer HP. Fast forward to 95 with the Mercedez engine now more or less outlawed by the rulebook and Penske's drivers and engineers didn't have a handle on the cars, because they hadn't needed it, and ended up not making the race. Their setup books were out of date basically...

                But all that said... Newgarden showed that Chevy was still a pole threat. And the Monday practice showed the Chevy race package is still right there at the pointy end of the field.
                Honda might've won the battle, but they still haven't won the war.
                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

                Comment


                • #23
                  Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

                  The Indy 500 will always be just fine because it has so much history and big event status. The problem is that these teams have to find ways to afford to race for the rest of the season. The series itself seems to be on financial life support and the only thing that saves it is the Indy 500. Even in this historic 100th running, you have a car in the field that didn't even post a qualifying speed. In the old days, you used to have great drivers/teams completely shut out because it was so competitive. The 500 will always make a ton of money, but the series is on the respirator. It's a shame because there are some incredibly talented drivers in this series, but the fallout from the split ran off millions of fans AND nuked an entire generation of new fans since the angry fans didn't raise their children to become fans.
                  Last edited by Sollozzo; 05-25-2016, 09:28 AM.

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

                    In Boies I trust.

                    Also, holy ****, the blackout is lifted this year.

                    Also holy ****, the INFIELD is sold out.
                    "Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

                    "And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

                      Never thought I'd see the infield sold out. I have to wonder if it really sold out or if they decided at this late date to hit a certain number and call it sold out for the PR? The only problem with that theory is you'd think they'd wait until Friday to make the announcement, selling more tickets along the way, rather than to do it now.

                      Of course there's always the possibility they will now 'decide' to make more tickets available and announce it Friday....

                      But real or massaged, there's no way it happens unless ticket sales were STRONG.

                      One thing I would caution people against is expecting no aluminum this year. I suspect scalpers gambled and gobbled up some tickets for this year thinking business would be good on the secondary ticket market. Which still might be true, but leaves open the possibility of seats that IMS sold remaining unused if the scalpers can't move the tickets.
                      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

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

                        60% chance of rain now.

                        Luckily I am sitting under the terrace so it shouldn't be too bad even if it rains a little. Just annoying waiting for them to dry the track.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

                          Originally posted by Bball View Post
                          Never thought I'd see the infield sold out. I have to wonder if it really sold out or if they decided at this late date to hit a certain number and call it sold out for the PR? The only problem with that theory is you'd think they'd wait until Friday to make the announcement, selling more tickets along the way, rather than to do it now.

                          Of course there's always the possibility they will now 'decide' to make more tickets available and announce it Friday....

                          But real or massaged, there's no way it happens unless ticket sales were STRONG.

                          One thing I would caution people against is expecting no aluminum this year. I suspect scalpers gambled and gobbled up some tickets for this year thinking business would be good on the secondary ticket market. Which still might be true, but leaves open the possibility of seats that IMS sold remaining unused if the scalpers can't move the tickets.
                          Some forecasts say 89 degrees for the high. I fully expect aluminum to be seen at some point in the stands.

                          60% chance of rain now.

                          Luckily I am sitting under the terrace so it shouldn't be too bad even if it rains a little. Just annoying waiting for them to dry the track.
                          It sounds like it's going to be one of those days where it's raining on the airport and skies are clear at the track, at least until 3 or so. That should get the race in.
                          Last edited by Sandman21; 05-26-2016, 12:34 AM.
                          "Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

                          "And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

                            Originally posted by Sandman21 View Post
                            Some forecasts say 89 degrees for the high. I fully expect aluminum to be seen at some point in the stands.
                            I know I won't spend the entire race in my seats. Watch the first 25 or so laps, wander around the infield for awhile, watch the last 50 or so laps. I'll watch the full race on TV when I get home.
                            "I had to take her down like Chris Brown."

                            -Lance Stephenson

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

                              There's a difference between "event is sold out and some people are inevitably wandering around at all times" aluminum and "massive patches because they couldn't sell all the seats" aluminum. Pretty easy to tell the difference.

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Re: Indycar 2016 Season Thread

                                Ticket prices from scalpers are pretty salty right now.
                                StubHub has several tickets and some are reasonable for regular seats. And some are cRaZee!! No way anyone is paying 9000.00+ for some of those.
                                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

                                Comment

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