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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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Van Gundy isn't problem ... refs are

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  • #1

    Van Gundy isn't problem ... refs are

    Van Gundy isn't problem ... refs are


    Kevin Hench / FOXSports.com

    Posted: 17 hours ago



    OK, David Stern, you made your point.


    You don't want NBA coaches talking publicly about the terrible officiating in the NBA. You don't want NBA coaches protecting their sources on inside information about the terrible officiating in the NBA. You don't want hardworking, passionate, decent men coaching in the NBA if they are going to be so impolitic as to point out the terrible officiating in the NBA.


    Now, do you have any plans to actually do anything about the terrible officiating in the NBA? If Jeff Van Gundy can be fined $100,000 for suggesting that he was tipped off by an NBA ref that the league was going to be "looking harder at Yao" in the playoffs — which may very well be true — then what does Mr. Stern propose to do about the unconscionable sixth foul called on Tim Duncan in last night's overtime against Denver.



    With two minutes gone in OT, Carmelo Anthony slipped and fell — in the same spot that Andre Miller slipped earlier, by the way — and so the whistle blew. Why? Because the whistle always blows. (Unless it absolutely should, in which case it is often swallowed.) And when the whistle blows, everything stops. And everyone looks at the official who only then realizes the gravity of the situation. He has to call SOMETHING.

    In this case, the official, having assumed a foul must have been committed, then had to look for a perpetrator and found only Duncan in the vicinity. Sorry. You're gone. Replays showed what viewers and broadcasters suspected: Anthony slipped. So this ref not only blew a call at a critical moment of a critical game, but he tagged a superstar with his sixth foul.

    So what will his fine be? How about five hundred bucks? Perhaps a one-game suspension? Don't hold your breath. Lucky for Stern and his beleaguered officials, the Spurs won going away in overtime in what TNT's Charles Barkley called "one of the worst-officiated games I've seen in my 20 years associated with the NBA."

    But Van Gundy's Rockets weren't lucky enough to survive the worst call of the night. Or rather, the worst non-call, which — horror of horrors — happened with Commissioner Stern in attendance.

    With Houston making a run to close within three in the final minute, Rockets guard Jon Barry secured a defensive rebound under the basket. Since Barry himself was practically on the baseline, it's safe to assume that any defender that swooped in under his left elbow would be out of bounds. So when Michael Finley reached in from the baseline side of Barry and poked the ball free, Bennett Salvatore, Joe DeRosa or Tony Brothers would have to blow his whistle, right?

    Right?

    Nope. Like the rest of us, Salvatore and company just looked on doing nothing as the ball bounced to Jerry Stackhouse, who was tripped by Barry and awarded two crucial free throws.

    According to Van Gundy, Salvatore claimed Finley had indeed been inbounds when he reached in and touched the ball. Wow.

    Won't Mr. Salvatore be surprised when he sees the replay. Was Finley's right foot inbounds and his left foot on the line? No. Was Finley's left foot out of bounds and his right foot on the line? No. Were both of Finley's feet completely freakin' out of bounds? YESSSSSSS!!!

    So what will the sanctions be against Salvatore's crew for contributing mightily to the Rockets' 103-100 loss? The usual. Nothing.

    If Jeff Van Gundy can be fined $100K for criticizing the refs, can the refs be fined for blowing key calls during the playoffs? (LM Otero / FOXSports.com)


    Antoine Walker can get suspended for making contact with an official — in what had been the worst-officiated game of the playoffs prior to Spurs-Nuggets last night — and Van Gundy can be fined 100 large for divulging certain details of a private conversation and then not giving up his friend, but when will NBA officials be publicly held to account for doing a poor job?

    Stern's answer seems to be to come down hard on the complainers and hope it will distract the fans from the larger problem. But he's missing the solution.

    Replay. Replay, replay, replay, a thousand times replay!

    If it's good enough to see if a shot was released in time or if a toe was on the line, why not to see if a player was inbounds when he made contact with the ball?

    Both of Monday night's horrible calls could have been overturned by replay. Give coaches two challenges per game or per half, or one per game, but give them something. Anything to avoid officials deciding games. If throwing the red flag has already been taken, maybe they could roll a red-white-and-blue ball onto the court to signify a challenge.

    Do you think Bennett Salvatore wants to feel like a jackass when he watches that replay and realizes not only did his crew blow the call but that he erroneously defended the non-call to the losing coach? Of course not.

    On a play like Finley reaching in from out of bounds, a ref would happily overturn his own ruling and award the ball to the aggrieved team.

    Same with those pesky block/charge calls when the refs are always guessing as to whether the defender's heels have cleared the circle under the basket. How many hundreds of times during the regular season does the replay reveal an official's error on this call? Sometimes the defender gets called for a block when his heels are hovering just above the circle, and sometimes the penetrator gets called for a charge when the defender's heels are on the line. It's an impossible call to make with any certainty when massive bodies are flying at high speeds.

    So in the pressure cooker of the playoffs, let's just acknowledge that refs make mistakes that television cameras can rectify and use the technology to take some of the heat off the officials.

    There's a reason so many calls are missed in the NBA — it's an almost impossible game to officiate. If you've ever been courtside when the combustible mixture of freakish giants and blazing sprinters (and freakish giant, blazing sprinters) all collide in pursuit of a rebound, you know it's simply impossible to have a perfect night as an NBA ref.

    So why not help the refs, the coaches and the fans? NBA games don't run that long. There's time for a handful of challenges. Just to get the calls right.

    Or you can threaten to run Jeff Van Gundy, one of the genuine good guys in the league, out of the game. It's your choice, David Stern.

    Kevin Hench is supervising producer of The Sports List on Fox Sports Net.
    Don't ask Marvin Harrison what he did during the bye week. "Batman never told where the Bat Cave is," he explained.
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  • #2
    Re: Van Gundy isn't problem ... refs are

    How about adding a 4th ref who sits at the scorers table watching the replays on the monitor. He cant call a foul he can only overturn a bad call. I think that would be a quick easy way to solve the problem. The game would not have to be stopped for a long period of time. The replay could be cued up quickly and since the ref is already at the TV he would not need to walk over and put on headsets.

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: Van Gundy isn't problem ... refs are

      Originally posted by Ragnar
      How about adding a 4th ref who sits at the scorers table watching the replays on the monitor. He cant call a foul he can only overturn a bad call. I think that would be a quick easy way to solve the problem. The game would not have to be stopped for a long period of time. The replay could be cued up quickly and since the ref is already at the TV he would not need to walk over and put on headsets.
      While in theory I think it's a great idea in the actual execution of it the thing would stink. Look at the NFL and how long it takes for them to change a call.

      Last year at the end of one of the Pacer games the refs took 20 minutes trying to decide if they'd made the right call of not. Games not on national televison already last 2 1/2 hours. Playoff games last almost 3 hours. I hate to think how long games would take with an extra ref just waiting to screw things up even more.

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