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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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Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

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  • Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

    Just want to get everyone's opinion and expectations for the coming season. I'm torn by this team. I look at the roster, and it doesn't look good to me on paper. I think Oladipo and Turner are going to have breakout season's (Turner will be an all-star), but the rest is pretty underwhelming. However, there is another part of me that thinks this team could potentially make the playoffs in the East if they really gel early on (the East is pretty terrible). I'm also curious to see if the rookies, Leaf and Anigbogu, play at all. Does Cory Joseph out play Collison and finally win a starting role? Will GRIII take another next step, and prove his nickname as "The Fit", or will he blossom into a starter that can contribute more than just his past role? Is Sabonis going to provide a spark off the bench, or will he be the starter next to Turner? There are just so many questions about individual players and the team as a whole. Ultimately, I think this team ends up winning 30-32 games while earning a top 6 pick. They'll be in the running to draft Bagley, Porter Jr, Bamba, Ayton, Doncic, or Bridges. Any of those players would be an excellent pick up, and add to the youth of the team. Your thoughts?
    18
    26-28
    16.67%
    3
    29-30
    5.56%
    1
    31-33
    16.67%
    3
    34-37
    5.56%
    1
    38-40 (Maybe Playoffs in East)
    38.89%
    7
    41+ (Playoffs)
    16.67%
    3

  • #2
    Re: Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

    I tend to like to wait until training camp is over to go on record.
    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


    • #3
      Re: Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

      Home: 21-20 - This is being optimistic.
      Away: 8-33 - We're going to get clobbered on the road.

      Prediction: 29-53 due to too many young players inexperienced
      at playing together. Lack of experience will be especially glaring
      on defense. Whether or not Coach Nate is the right coach for
      this particular group is an unknown factor.

      Probably lottery bound looking at the 8th or 9th pick in next
      year's draft.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

        Originally posted by BillS View Post
        I tend to like to wait until training camp is over to go on record.
        Yeah, the official thread comes out then and Buck usually does it.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

          What makes it really hard is how many awful teams there are in the East. The Pacers could be a playoff team solely because the East contains the Hawks, Bulls, Heat, Pistons, Knicks, Magic, 76ers, Nets and Hornets. I expect the Pacers to be better than at probably 6 or 7 of those teams. Definitely better than the Hawks, Bulls, Knicks, Nets and Magic, probably better than Detroit, and I'm assuming at least two players on the 76ers will tear ACLs before the regular season.
          Danger Zone

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

            38-40. Basketball reasons.


            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

              I'm saying 36 and the playoffs just cause it's the East.
              I'm scared of what our west record will be. I'm sure we are going to beat a few of them but overall it's going to be ugly.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

                I'm going to say 39-43. A lot of it has to do with having a lot of guys around the same skill level that bring different things to the table. I could see many variations of lineups, and that's one of the things I trust McMillan with. I think we will have a nice defense, especially with CoJo and Oladipo in the backcourt. I sincerely hope GRIII continues his growth, he has become one of my favorites after really not trusting him in the slightest before last season. But we have some crafty guys, some wild guys, some steady guys, and some youth.

                I think removing all bias I would predict something like 33-49. At any rate, I am excited to see Myles this time next year after being much more of a focal point for a year.
                Last edited by Ichi; 08-25-2017, 10:10 PM.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

                  I just think the team will be better than most here think. Of course I was wrong last year.
                  Go Pacers!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

                    Originally posted by Trader Joe View Post
                    38-40. Basketball reasons.
                    That may be difficult to total.
                    Pacers fan since April 9th 2004 - New Jersey 80 Indiana 90.
                    Been to 42 Pacers games since November 2017.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

                      I went through the schedule & predicted each game...I came up with 39-43, which is where I predicted them before calling all 82 games.

                      1. Celtics
                      2. Cavs
                      3. Bucks
                      4. Wizards
                      5. Heat
                      6. Raptors
                      7. Pacers
                      8. Nets

                      9. Hornets
                      10. Pistons
                      11. 76ers
                      12. Magic
                      13. Knicks
                      14. Bulls
                      15. Hawks

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

                        Originally posted by I Love P View Post
                        I went through the schedule & predicted each game...I came up with 39-43, which is where I predicted them before calling all 82 games.

                        1. Celtics
                        2. Cavs
                        3. Bucks
                        4. Wizards
                        5. Heat
                        6. Raptors
                        7. Pacers
                        8. Nets

                        9. Hornets
                        10. Pistons
                        11. 76ers
                        12. Magic
                        13. Knicks
                        14. Bulls
                        15. Hawks
                        Curious.. You really think the Nets will be better than the Pistons? Detroit has two guys (at least) better than everyone on the Nets roster in Avery Bradley and Drummond (although I think he's a bit overrated).

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

                          Going 38 to 40 before I see the team play. I really don't think the overall talent level is much lower than last years team I picked to win 44. Biggest issue will be a team that has to figure out their identity and a mediocre coach who won't help much in that area.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

                            27. This team lost it's closer. Nate is an uninspiring coach so after the first 20 games or so the player's own excitement and energy will start to wear down and any incredible surprises (except Turner) will be figured out by NBA coaches. I suspect a record number of close finishes but with no wins to show for it. This team will be scrappy as hell and maybe beat a lot of top teams. The year after next season is what I'm really excited about.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Guess the Pacers 2017/2018 Season Win Total (Explain why)

                              I think about 28 wins is where the team is at, and Pacers can afford one bad season to try and get another star player so the lottery isn't a trend after that. Collison came from a losing situation, Oladipo was on a losing situation in Orlando and was not in as big of role in OKC with Westbrook doing everything, Sabonis was by many metrics the worst starting player in the league on that same OKC team, Bogdanovic has been on awful Nets teams until being a bench player for the Wiz.

                              Myles is going to determine how good this season is for the Pacers, if he takes the next step and is a 20+ ppg, 10+ rpg with the blocks then I think the Pacers could have an outside shot at the playoffs (if the playoffs are 35-40 wins)...if he's a 15-18 ppg, 8 rebound guy then I think this season is going to be really low on wins.

                              Also if an injury happens to Oladipo or Myles then prepare for the win total to really plummet (we all hope this doesn't happen).
                              "It's just unfortunate that we've been penalized so much this year and nothing has happened to the Pistons, the Palace or the city of Detroit," he said. "It's almost like it's always our fault. The league knows it. They should be ashamed of themselves to let the security be as lax as it is around here."

                              ----------------- Reggie Miller

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