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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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Entertainment v fundamentals the perfect NBA Finals

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  • #1

    Entertainment v fundamentals the perfect NBA Finals

    I can hear it now. TV ratings are low, scoring is low, and people are complaining. Where is the splash and dash where are the stars, where is the hype, where is the controversy, where is the fun. Over the next two weeks those questions will be asked as the ratings will be low and the scoring even lower. The casual sports fan won't be watching the NBA Finals, the casual basketball fan might watch a little, even the causal NBA fan will want more sizzle and might tune out.

    Well I say that is their loss because this will be a great, great NBA Finals. Anyone who is actually a true NBA fan will be in heaven watching these two teams play. If you hate the Pistons, then fine root against them. But please watch this series, because this is what NBA basketball needs to be


    http://www.freep.com/sports/pistons/drew9e_20050609.htm

    DREW SHARP: Will fundamentals overshadow the fun?

    June 9, 2005






    BY DREW SHARP
    FREE PRESS COLUMNIST



    Fathers, warmed by grainy recollections of basketball as a five-man symphony, gather their sons in front of the high-definition television tonight -- provided, of course, they can pry the PlayStation Portable from their carpal-tunnel clawed hands.


    "Put away your NBA Extreme video game, my son, and come watch basketball the way it was meant to be played," the father says.


    "What's that?" the son asks.


    "It's called a pass. See how they keep moving the ball, stretching the defense? I remember back in the day when the Boston Celtics wou--"


    "What's that?" the son asks.


    "That's Tim Duncan using the backboard as an offensive partner. That makes him dangerous from pretty much any angle on the floor. I remember my dad telling me when George Mikan wou--"


    "Isn't the backboard there just to bounce the ball off it during the slam dunk contest?" the son asks.


    "No, it has another use, son."


    "And what's that?" the son asks.


    "That's Rip Hamilton coming off the screen, running into the lane and pulling up for a mid-range jumper. Sweet, isn't it? Ah, I remember when Jerry West wou--"


    "Why doesn't he just take it strong to the hole, split the defenders and -- BOOYAH!!! -- slam it home?" the son asks. "That's how you roll."


    "You're not understanding. This is the purest form of basketball. See that? See how they boxed out underneath the boards, denying the offensive rebound? See how they reversed the ball offensively, moving it faster than the defense can rotate, creating an open look?


    "You're getting a real education on basketball tonight, son. ... The professional approach and the lack of showboating. ... The attention to minute detail. ... The snail's pace. ... The missed shots. ... The numerous 24-second shot clock violations. ... It's enough ... to make ... you ... ZZZZZZZZZZ."


    It's time for the Old School to take its teeth out of the glass and step forward -- or shut up. Old Schoolers have the NBA Finals they've long desired -- the league's two most fundamentally sound teams as well as its last two champions, something that hasn't happened since 1987, the last time the Celtics and Lakers swapped league titles.


    The Pistons and San Antonio Spurs share the ball as well as the acclaim, the antithesis of the rampant egomania that the basketball moralists maintain has killed the sport over the last 20 years.


    But can these two put the funk in fundamental?


    If not, it could be a hard-played, smartly executed, grind-it-up, methodically slow torture -- even to those who profess their loyalties to the virtues of substance.


    "They have won two championships with Gregg (Popovich) and not very many talk about it," said Pistons coach Larry Brown, who added Popovich to his bench in San Antonio as an assistant more than 10 years ago. "And we're the defending champs and not very many people talk about that. As far as ups and downs, that's the way it is in basketball, pro basketball. It's a marathon. You know, we've overcome every obstacle with all the supposed distractions. We managed to show up, and I think we helped the game the way we play."


    But can that translate to serious interest to places not Detroit or San Antonio?


    Even a basketball junkie might envision going cold turkey should scoring become as scarce as a hockey puck this playoff spring.


    The NBA becomes a convenient target because of its hip-hop influence. Patience has turned paper thin and if anybody dares challenge your manhood, you must respond forcefully. That attitude was an underlying motive behind the black eye of this season -- the Palace brawl of Nov. 19.


    And as much as many fans crave professionalism, they still demand personality.


    And that's the one component this series lacks.


    Where's the villain?


    The coaches are best friends. How can anybody dislike Duncan? Spurs point guard Tony Parker, though, probably merits a fair amount of envy from the male species because of his relationship with that delicious Desperate Housewife, Eva Longoria.


    Old Schoolers consider this Pistons-Spurs series as a celebration of team over temerity, but they could find themselves as easily disinterested as the fringe audience if the fundamentals overshadow the fun the next two weeks.


    The NBA Finals weren't intended to become a classroom. It's still about entertainment, isn't it?
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Entertainment v fundamentals

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...060802575.html


    Spurs vs. Pistons: The Perfect Matchup

    By Michael Wilbon

    Thursday, June 9, 2005; Page E01

    If this isn't the NBA Finals you want, too bad. It's the one you should want. It's the perfect series for the folks who don't want their basketball littered with divas, the perfect series for people who believe the game has devolved into something entirely selfish and showy, the perfect series for folks who foolishly believe the pros aren't committed to playing defense, the perfect series for the conspiracy theorists who believe the NBA would go to any lengths to make sure the Finals include at least one team loaded with megastars to ensure big TV ratings.

    Spurs vs. Pistons, which begins tonight in San Antonio, is a championship confrontation that will defy virtually every stereotype commonly held about the NBA. For those clinging to the belief that foreign-born players are at best complementary pieces, there is the Spurs' starting back court of France's Tony Parker and Argentina's Olympic gold medal-winning Manu Ginobili. For those who think every game is about isolation basketball, there will be more passing and movement without the ball than any college team could dream of executing. For those who think NBA coaches are mostly guys who go along to get along, there is San Antonio's Gregg Popovich, who graduated from the Air Force Academy, majored in Soviet studies, speaks Russian and toured Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union with the U.S. Armed Forces team in the early 1970s. You don't just say "Go play" when you've spent eight years at a Division III school (Pomona-Pitzer), for one stint living in a dorm with your wife and two kids.

    On the other side, Detroit's Larry Brown has been in unspeakable discomfort with the difficulties that followed his hip surgery in November.

    Wherever he winds up next season and in whatever capacity, Brown probably should be resting comfortably on a beach somewhere instead of trying to rally a team psychologically set back after the Nov. 19 brawl which, remember, involved Pacers players but no Pistons. Instead, the 64-year-old Brown, who also has to be tired from coaching the U.S. Olympic team all summer, is chasing a second title as if his career on the sideline might end this month, which it could.

    With Brown is a star-challenged team of castoffs again riding through the league with the biggest chip-on-your-shoulder attitude you've ever seen. Richard Hamilton, Ben Wallace, Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups -- four of the Pistons starters -- play every game as if they were traded yesterday, and the result is a basketball symphony of passing, screening, cutting, shooting, rebounding and defending, set to a soundtrack of whining to the officials over every call.

    Anybody who loves basketball, or at the very least understands it, should be drooling to watch these teams play each other for a possible seven games over two weeks. Those who claim to love old-school basketball in its purity and don't want to watch Spurs-Pistons are hypocrites and frauds of the first degree. And those who are still asking "Where's LeBron? Where's Kobe? Where's Kevin Garnett? Where's the sizzle?" are probably too star-obsessed for the league to worry about capturing in the first place.

    And, yes, that's a pretty big number. The NBA is largely to blame.

    Over the years, the league has done a phenomenal job marketing superstars, from Wilt and Russell to Kareem and Oscar to Wes and E to Magic and Bird to Doc and Jordan to Shaq and Kobe. Just as hockey sells violence, baseball sells its rich history and the NFL sells the uniform (so well that replacement players can play in them and people barely notice), the NBA sells star power. So naturally, people not slavishly devoted to pro basketball tune in to the league's showcase event to see those stars. And when there aren't any, the casual fans who don't know screen from roll are going to be hard to hold.

    So the NBA has its work cut out as much as the Pistons and Spurs do in this series.

    Tim Duncan could be a star but would rather do a rain dance in his underwear than be involved in the whole star thing. Even the defending champion Pistons are hard to get ahold of outside of basketball circles. Who among them has a national presence? Well, nobody.

    The reason Rasheed Wallace works better in Detroit than in Portland is that he doesn't want to be the big scorer and recoils from the notion of being The Man. He wants to concentrate sometimes on passing, sometimes on defense. He's a scruffy irritant, but by most accounts a wonderful teammate. The biggest star on the Pistons is Larry Brown and he got more attention for this recent flirtation with the Cleveland Cavaliers than for anything else he's done this season.

    Those of us who are tired of the marketing and TV ratings issues, however, will have what ought to be a wonderful series to dive into.

    (Okay, I'll admit to diving in a little late, Game 3 in Detroit to be exact. I've not missed a Game 1 of the Finals since 1988, but the notion of seeing Vijay, Ernie, Phil, Annika and Mike Tyson go local in the same weekend is too irresistible to leave town. If you like stars, you'll love Tyson even if you don't know who's getting in the ring to fight him. Yesterday, three days before a fight he's been drooling over for six weeks, Kornheiser took one look at the Tyson opponent, Kevin McBride, and said, "Uh, you mean the guy Tyson's fighting is white? Oh-oh. This changes everything!")

    But beyond the gratuitous shots of Eva Longoria watching Parker (my TiVo is set), it's going to be about matchups and pace, defending screen-and-roll, and claiming control of games.

    Duncan is the best player in the series and Ginobili is probably the second-best. If San Antonio's Bruce Bowen guards Detroit's Rip Hamilton, it almost certainly means the lightning-quick but very slight Parker will have to guard the much bigger and stronger Billups, which leaves Ginobili to square off with Tayshaun Prince at least at one end. The matchups between Duncan and one Wallace, Nazr Mohammed and the other Wallace will make for great thought and better action.

    That Detroit doesn't have much of a bench may hurt the Pistons against San Antonio, which has a deadly shooter in Brent Barry, a stunningly underrated all-around backup guard in Beno Udrih, former starter Rasho Nesterovic and Mr. June, Robert Horry, who could be looking at a sixth championship ring.

    The people who just can't stand the lack of star power in this series should go off to watch midseason baseball or reality TV, while folks who crave basketball at its best should enjoy the first meeting of champions in the Finals since 1987, and one of the rare matchups in recent years of the game's two best teams. Six games sounds about right.

    Spurs in six.

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: Entertainment v fundamentals the perfect NBA Finals

      People should be excited to see these teams play. This really is clash of the titans, 2 of the best defense first teams in the league matching up and battling. I predic this is the series when Tim Duncan becomes of Legendary status similar to a Bill Russel or Kevin Machale, even a Kareem. Though this article is trying to lure the casual NBA fan in, I'm not sure they deserve to watch, seems like it taints the pureness of this series.

      (how about that, Pure and Detroit in the same thought, who'd a thunk it?)


      EDIT:What about Tayshaun Prince??
      Life without water is tough, life without air is hard,life with one leg only is wobbly, Life without Reggie Miller, is impossible.

      Do Not Trade Austin

      Originally posted by Conrad Brunner
      Veteran Austin Croshere, the longest-tenured Pacers player on the roster, has proven reliable when called upon, invariably ready to step in regardless of the circumstance.

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Entertainment v fundamentals the perfect NBA Finals

        Maybe if the NBA's officiating, among other things, wasn't so biased and terrible I would watch...I can't stand to watch anybody besides the Pacers anymore, and even then it's sometimes hard to stand witness to the league's issues...

        Have fun, whoever watches this series.

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Entertainment v fundamentals the perfect NBA Finals

          Originally posted by MSA2CF
          Maybe if the NBA's officiating, among other things, wasn't so biased and terrible I would watch...I can't stand to watch anybody besides the Pacers anymore, and even then it's sometimes hard to stand witness to the league's issues...

          Have fun, whoever watches this series.

          OK, so tell me if the NBA officiating is bias, who will it favor in this series.

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Entertainment v fundamentals the perfect NBA Finals

            I love it when people complain about officiating.

            Do you think if the league was "biased", that the Spurs and the Pistons would be in the NBA finals?

            Don't you think that if it were "biased", the Miami Heat would have been in the finals? I'm sure the Heat would be alot better for them to market with the superstar power of Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade.

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Entertainment v fundamentals the perfect NBA Finals

              UB, I'm not so much talking about team bias in this series, more individual-type, such as the infamous Yao series.

              PFA, Yes. No. I don't think the NBA shoots for the best stories of the now all the time, sometimes they work on storylines for years at a time...Creates suspense.

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