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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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They are talking about us on Rats

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  • They are talking about us on Rats

    For entertainment purposes only. I did not realize whoever defended Ron got banned. How did I slip through the cracks. Boy that Hicks guy sounds like a real jerk

    Enjoy

    http://www2.indystar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106145


    JOneal7
    Registered User Join Date: Jan 2005
    Posts: 9

    Who's on Pacersdigest here?

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    I was...but was banned because of some bs...The owner had some grudge against me...
    who here is on there?

    JOneal7

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    i was on there for a week until i found this place, didnt really post, just wanted to see what people were saying.

    itgoesbuzz


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    I was there when they first started but the power of the admins quickly went to their heads. It's not a good Pacer discussion site imho.

    Golgac1

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    Yeah. I registered there, but never posted anything and rarely visit anymore. A few of the posters make decent observations, but, I'm not quite sure why, but too many people over there annoy me.

    Plus, I like having the fans of other teams here. I just wish the trolls would leave.

    Cudeigra
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    yes the admins over there let the power go to their head. Esp. Hicks...And sad thing is that's all he does. He didn't setup or pay for the site.
    They have cliques...and if you arent in them...then your an outcast...


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    Yeah, it's funny how they started that board because they were tired of the over zealous admin that used to be here. Now the place is run by Hicks, who is wildly over zealous.

    I've seen him toss many a person for no good reason and give them no chance to discuss the matter.

    Over zealous? Yes.

    Very strong clique? Yes.


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    Yeah, Don't defend ron over there. Or your tossed...if you don't agree with them...then it's over...they tossed a bunch of good posters due to the fact they "Challenged" their authority....
    Hicks is just power hungry

    JOneal7
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    For what it is worth I visit both sites and each has its positives and negatives.
    If you want amusement due to troll involvement this is the place to be.
    I laugh with some of the things posted. There are good posters here.
    I do believe exellent discussion is present on digest and I really like some of
    the insight posters have there. If you go postal on someone at digest you
    probably will be banned and that is fine. Keep it civil as it should be here.

    owl

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    I mainly go to PD to read Peck & UncleBuck's posts. Former posters here whose opinions I always found interesting. I like to get their take on things.

    Don't post much there. Just hard to break into a new board. I'm used to this one.

    GO BIG RED

    I post there, and i'm not in any cliques...I see plenty of Artest posts from both "trade him" and "keep him" camps.

    Bottom line...if you want troll free posting...go there. Many posters there also post here, and some of the same threads exist in both places. If you can work your way around the trolls, then post here.

    I get tired of people coming here to complain about PD. If you read the one-sided posts of those that get banned from there...it's always the same complaint..."oh, Hicks is a jerk"..."They just don't like me over there so they banned me". If you got banned, it was for good reason. Don't go blaming someone else. You don't have to admit anything here...you only have to be honest with yourself.

    I will also mention that the mods over there OWN the site! It's theirs! They can ban you for no reason at all, and they have to answer to no one! If that bothers you, then why even put any more thought to the site? Why not just leave and go somewhere that you enjoy?!?!
    Let me offer an analogy...you came to my house, and I let you in. Then later on, I decided to throw you out...it doesn't matter what reason I give you...I could have not liked something you said...I could have taken a dislike to your shoes...or the car you drove up in...all pointless reasons...but it doesn't matter...IT'S MY HOUSE!!! Same thing there. There's no reason to go to the neighbors and complain about my kicking you out...just go somewhere else!



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    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TripleThreat
    I post there, and i'm not in any cliques...I see plenty of Artest posts from both "trade him" and "keep him" camps.

    Bottom line...if you want troll free posting...go there. Many posters there also post here, and some of the same threads exist in both places. If you can work your way around the trolls, then post here.

    I get tired of people coming here to complain about PD. If you read the one-sided posts of those that get banned from there...it's always the same complaint..."oh, Hicks is a jerk"..."They just don't like me over there so they banned me". If you got banned, it was for good reason. Don't go blaming someone else. You don't have to admit anything here...you only have to be honest with yourself.

    I will also mention that the mods over there OWN the site! It's theirs! They can ban you for no reason at all, and they have to answer to no one! If that bothers you, then why even put any more thought to the site? Why not just leave and go somewhere that you enjoy?!?!





    I wasn't banned and they pretty much (most of the admins not the posters) are jerks. Sorry if that hurts your feelings.




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    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Golgac1
    I wasn't banned and they pretty much (most of the admins not the posters) are jerks. Sorry if that hurts your feelings.


    it doesn't hurt my feelings in the least...I'm not bothered by any of it, other than people coming here to complain about being banned...don't put words in my mouth.

    you have every right to think the mods there are jerks...you also have every right to leave when you want...or keep posting there. It's your choice.


    Send--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TripleThreat
    it doesn't hurt my feelings in the least...I'm not bothered by any of it, other than people coming here to complain about being banned...don't put words in my mouth.

    you have every right to think the mods there are jerks...you also have every right to leave when you want...or keep posting there. It's your choice.



    Uh Gee ya think. Let the original poster get some feelings off his chest. He just wanted to rant a little. It's no big deal.

    Golgac1


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    I was the friggin former Most Fanatic Poster of the year...they banned me because I challenged hicks.
    Don't defend your team either...or you will be banned. They HATE people who try showing them up or saying there opinion is wrong.

    JOneal7

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    Quote:
    Originally Posted by TripleThreat
    it doesn't hurt my feelings in the least...I'm not bothered by any of it, other than people coming here to complain about being banned...don't put words in my mouth.

    you have every right to think the mods there are jerks...you also have every right to leave when you want...or keep posting there. It's your choice.



    He also has every right to complain about the moderators or posters there. So, feel free to be bothered, but the nice thing about this site is that we don't have to care.

    Cudeigra

  • #2
    Re: They are talking about us on Rats

    LOL!

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: They are talking about us on Rats

      why does everybody call it Rats?
      “Seventy percent of me talking on the court is personally for me to get me
      motivated and going. Thirty percent is to see if I can get into the opponent’s head.”
      Reggie Miller

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: They are talking about us on Rats

        Originally posted by brichard
        why does everybody call it Rats?
        Star backwards is Rats.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: They are talking about us on Rats

          Hey Buck! They now have a post over there talking about your post over here. So I thought I would make a post talking about them talking about you talking about them.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: They are talking about us on Rats

            It is a sad day when there is a rivalry between message boards for fans of the same team!

            -Bball
            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


            • #7
              Re: They are talking about us on Rats

              Didn't JO7 get unbanned later on? Or was that someone else?

              I'm not sure how Bball and Peck and UB have managed to post for so long, what with no allowance for differing opinions. Or maybe it's not allowing personal attacks.

              Nah, that couldn't be it.

              IndyToad
              Why am I even commenting on this discussion?

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: They are talking about us on Rats

                JOneal7 is an angry little fella.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: They are talking about us on Rats

                  Originally posted by Harmonica
                  JOneal7 is an angry little fella.
                  I guess JO didn't give him a headband at the last game or something.

                  IndyToad
                  Go to the top of the page

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: They are talking about us on Rats

                    Didn't JO7 skirt close to some insenstive comments (racism) leading to his fall from grace?

                    -Bball
                    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


                    • #11
                      Re: They are talking about us on Rats

                      Is there some sort of mandate that says we have to go through this Rats vs. PD exercise every 2 months or so?

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: They are talking about us on Rats

                        Originally posted by Bball
                        Didn't JO7 skirt close to some insenstive comments (racism) leading to his fall from grace?

                        -Bball
                        Could you please come up with another way to make your point? If you don't I'm going to have to change my screen name.

                        Yuk. I feel so dirty.puke:

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: They are talking about us on Rats

                          It's sad in a way. They actually believe they did nothing inappropriate for their banishment(s)...Oh, well. Maybe someday...

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: They are talking about us on Rats

                            Meh. If they want to believe JONeal7's one-sided rants, that's their perogative. It's just odd that he posted this now, considering he's been banned for several weeks now. Seems to me that he and Sassan are basically complaining to the RATS forum that they're forced to post over there...

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: They are talking about us on Rats

                              This is all funny.I don't understand why they got banned i have been viewing this board for like a year now and i think you guys were a little un fair to sassan and Jo 7.

                              Comment

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