Announcement

Collapse

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.
See more
See less

Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #46
    Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

    That's not a solution. It's fantasy land.

    It wasn't about being the team everyone loved, it was about beating the teams everyone else loved.

    Division Champions 1955, 1956, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
    Conference Champions 1955, 1956, 1988, 2005
    NBA Champions 1989, 1990, 2004

    Comment


    • #47
      Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

      The solution to the NBA might be to see LeBron retire. He's made a lot of this worse from "the Decision" and him being a magnet for talent. Until then, Zzzzzz.

      Comment


      • #48
        Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

        The NBA needs to get rid of all of their superstars. They're too talented and talent is an unfair advantage. It's basically cheating. More importantly, they're making other fans feel bad about themselves.

        It wasn't about being the team everyone loved, it was about beating the teams everyone else loved.

        Division Champions 1955, 1956, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
        Conference Champions 1955, 1956, 1988, 2005
        NBA Champions 1989, 1990, 2004

        Comment


        • #49
          Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

          Originally posted by BlueNGold View Post
          BTW, I used to be a MLB fan for a long time prior to becoming more interested in the NBA. In fact, my career goal was to be a MLB player. Of course, that didn't work out. Anyway, once the strike happened in the early 90's, I stopped following baseball and have not even looked at a box score since that time. Moved on totally. I'm beginning to feel that way about the NBA unless they reconfigure it into something more interesting.

          I was the same way. I was a die hard Braves fan in the 90s until the strike and completely lost interest. I never watch baseball anymore. I couldn't even bring myself to watch any of this last, supposedly epic, World Series.

          Comment


          • #50
            Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

            Originally posted by pogi View Post
            Maybe my wording wasn't the best....but still, the point remains that you feel that owners should be able to tell a high-caliber player that they can't play for just any team they want. Especially if that team already has a bunch of all-stars. Sorry, but I feel that would be crappy. And I'm willing to bet that the players union would feel the same.


            And I somewhat disagree with you on parity. Pelicans have an all-star (I know, I know...he does get hurt a lot), but I doubt many people, not just here, but nationwide in general, would watch a lot of their games, even if all of them were televised. Same with Portland. Hell, I feel Milwaukee has one of the best players in the game, and I'm certain that a majority of people have maybe watched just one or two of their games, if that.


            But on the flip side, I'm also certain that many, many people have watched numerous Golden State games.






            It is what it is! Sometimes it takes luck AND great scouting to get there. Not every team has that.


            But what are YOU trying to say? That if the next Jordan, or Magic, or Bird, or Lebron happens to fall into the draft, they should just shut the whole NBA down? Just because not every team can have that type of player at that exact moment, also?


            It has been proven that just a well-rounded team can beat a squad of all-stars. Look up the Spurs, Dallas vs. Miami, Detroit vs. Lakers. It is possible. Hard to do? Certainly....but, possible. Either way, I'm still against owners being able to dictate which team a player can go to, with the exception of it being their own team.



            I think we'll just have to agree to disagree because I'm not even sure we're talking about the same thing here. Very little of what you said above about my position actually reflects my position, so we may agree on more than we realize.

            Comment


            • #51
              Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

              Originally posted by MnvrChvy View Post
              I think we'll just have to agree to disagree because I'm not even sure we're talking about the same thing here. Very little of what you said above about my position actually reflects my position, so we may agree on more than we realize.
              Basically, I feel that if a bunch of all-stars want to team up, they should be allowed to.

              Comment


              • #52
                Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

                Originally posted by pogi View Post
                Basically, I feel that if a bunch of all-stars want to team up, they should be allowed to.
                I'm all for free agency and players having the freedom to do what they want, but they need to look long term on this.

                I doubt current players care, because the odds of it impacting them are slim, but unless there's an increase in the number all-star caliber players having them pooled together on just a handful of teams will start being major economic hurdles to the other teams. It's basic supply/demand economics, and it rules markets.

                Shared revenue better keep increasing at a fast rate, if this trend continues, because the sharing of revenue will eventually have to carry the bottom feeders again.
                Last edited by Since86; 01-19-2017, 11:55 AM.
                Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

                Comment


                • #53
                  Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

                  I noticed that LeBron's back to his flopping ways.

                  Comment


                  • #54
                    Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

                    Originally posted by Since86 View Post
                    Shared revenue better keep increasing at a fast rate, if this trend continues, because the sharing of revenue will eventually have to carry the bottom feeders again.
                    A league of 5 teams of 10 All-Stars that plays fewer games and charges 4 figures a ticket in the cities where folks can afford that (plus a dedicated cable/satellite/internet feed that costs big bucks) would be just fine with those guys.
                    BillS

                    A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
                    Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...

                    Comment


                    • #55
                      Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

                      Originally posted by pogi View Post
                      Basically, I feel that if a bunch of all-stars want to team up, they should be allowed to.
                      They already do that. Every 4 years. It's called the Olympics.

                      I think what we are talking about here are an interest in watching two different things. You don't mind watching games where stars either sit out (like LeBron does just about every game in Indy) or where they sandbag until the playoffs just to make fans think the game isn't 100% fake during the regular season.

                      I, on the other hand, enjoy watching teams legitimately compete where ownership, through the draft and fair dealing on the market, craft their teams, acquire the right coaches and attempt to compete for a title. That's what the NBA was during some eras which it is not right now.

                      Comment


                      • #56
                        Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

                        Originally posted by BillS View Post
                        A league of 5 teams of 10 All-Stars that plays fewer games and charges 4 figures a ticket in the cities where folks can afford that (plus a dedicated cable/satellite/internet feed that costs big bucks) would be just fine with those guys.
                        I'd think the NBPA would have issues with it, but probably not.
                        Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

                        Comment


                        • #57
                          Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

                          I am a fan of parity. The bigger question is, what more can and should the NBA do about it? The Miami situation took such a confluence of factors that while it's possible it happens again, it's extremely difficult. The GS situation with the cap spike almost certainly will never happen again.

                          The Cleveland situation is repeatable where a team takes a team full of young assets, signs a superstar, and then cashes in some of those young assets for another star. While Cleveland itself was very lucky to be in that situation by winning the lottery 3 times, other teams could follow that path (Boston and Philly are two examples right now of teams who could easily do it).

                          But I don't know what rule change stops the Cleveland situation without dramatically altering the entire landscape, and since I don't see the other situations as likely to repeat I'm just not sure what to do. A hard cap combined with guaranteed contracts is not a great combination, and there's no way to get a hard cap without giving the players more money, which would make the cap so high to choke out small markets.

                          Comment


                          • #58
                            Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

                            Originally posted by Cubs231721 View Post
                            While Cleveland itself was very lucky to be in that situation by winning the lottery 3 times,
                            That, in and of itself, is ridiculous. Yeah, I'm biased coming from a team that never has won the lottery, but no #1 pick in 40 years in the NBA would make anyone so.

                            Teams should get the high pick when legitimately bad, but they should only get it once in a certain time period (say, 5 years) so as to prevent stockpiling of talent like Cleveland and Philly. Keeping consistently tanking bad teams from hogging the top picks would also help some of the teams who refuse to treat their fans to horribly bad seasons get some of that draft opportunity.
                            BillS

                            A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
                            Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...

                            Comment


                            • #59
                              Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

                              How much additional legislation do we really want to place within the league in order to attempt to foster parity?

                              All Star level players taking pay cuts in order to play with one another and compete for a championship, is no different than the Celtics and Lakers making acquisitions to stockpile Hall of Fame talent in the 80s.

                              I personally prefer that players have the ultimate say in where they want to play. That's the entire idea of Free Agency.

                              The idea that each team will have one or two homegrown superstars and everyone competes at a similar level is unobtainable.
                              Last edited by Ace E.Anderson; 01-19-2017, 01:31 PM.

                              Comment


                              • #60
                                Re: Report: LeBron James increasingly frustrated with how he's officiated

                                Originally posted by Ace E.Anderson View Post
                                How much additional legislation do we really want to place within the league in order to attempt to foster parity?

                                All Star level players taking pay cuts in order to play with one another and compete for a championship, is no different than the Celtics and Lakers making acquisitions to stockpile Hall of Fame talent in the 80s.
                                You mean the 80s where there were 23 teams total? And that right there sums up the issue.

                                The NBA, as an organization, exists to protect the 76ers as much as they do the Warriors. They have to look at what is good for all 30 teams, not what's best for their top tier talent. And as teams fold due to uncontrollable operating costs, who do you think is going to get the brunt of the criticism? Not the players, no. They'll be the victims.
                                Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X