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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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If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

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  • #16
    Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

    They are saying a minimum pressure of 906-7 for this one...
    You, Never? Did the Kenosha Kid?

    Comment


    • #17
      Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

      Originally posted by PacerFanAdam
      Agreed.

      The media loves to hype, but this isn't the case. Look at the radar. That storm is huge.

      The experts that these channels interview aren't going to "hype" anything. They're telling the truth, and that's that this storm will be devastating.

      The people in New Orleans who don't take this seriously are jepordizing their lives.
      But those will be the first people complaining when it is over, if they survive. I hope they get out if they can. The city and state should try to bus out as many of the poor as possible. I know there will be people here in San Antonio that have evacuated.

      Comment


      • #18
        Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

        I remember some forecasters saying last year that if NO gets hit was a major hurricane, it could completely ruin and destroy the city. It already has the problem of being below sea level, and a cat 5 would be devastating.
        Don't ask Marvin Harrison what he did during the bye week. "Batman never told where the Bat Cave is," he explained.

        Comment


        • #19
          Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

          Well it looks like it is going to hit N.O. head on. The city may not be the same for decades or ever.

          Do we have any posters from the N.O. area.

          Hope Bender got out OK. No jokes please. Although I think he's been in Houston actually

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

            Originally posted by Unclebuck
            Well it looks like it is going to hit N.O. head on. The city may not be the same for decades or ever.

            Do we have any posters from the N.O. area.

            Hope Bender got out OK. No jokes please. Although I think he's been in Houston actually
            Yeah hopefully everybody has gotten out and headed the warnings

            Why Not Us ?

            Comment


            • #21
              Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

              Gyron, get the hell outta there, man. Take care of yourself.

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

                Originally posted by Gyron
                Hey Guys, Im in the path of the storm right now in Gulf Shores Alabama. We are on the eastern edge, but will still probably see winds of 120 mph.

                We just finished boarding up the windows and doors.

                We were visiting my parents house for my brothers wedding. Its pretty much screwed all those plans up. We help the wedding, but the reception is gonna have to happen another time. Probably a couple months from now. After the storm comes through, there will be a lot of clean-up.

                If New orleans takes the direct it, it will be devastating to that city. It is a big bowl. It will take weeks or months to drain.

                Well, Gotta get back to work taking everything in from the yards. We will begin seeing some of the winds and rain this evening. We're gonna have a big hurricane party at the house instaed of the reception. Gotta do something with all that food and beer!
                Good luck. Stay safe.

                Comment


                • #23
                  Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

                  My dad and my brother were supposed to go down to Louisiana today for a court hearing for custody of my brother's little boy but my brother's x-wife was evacuated to Texas.

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

                    Thankfully people seem to be taking this as seriously as they should, for the most part. Perhaps loss of life hopefully will not be as much as I fearedthough it is possible that 1 million will be homeless and much of New Orleans may not be dry until next Spring.
                    The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

                      This is the National Weather Service warning for NO 4:13pm CDT:

                      MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS...PERHAPS LONGER. AT
                      LEAST ONE HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL
                      FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL...LEAVING THOSE HOMES SEVERELY
                      DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.

                      THE MAJORITY OF INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS WILL BECOME NON FUNCTIONAL.
                      PARTIAL TO COMPLETE WALL AND ROOF FAILURE IS EXPECTED. ALL WOOD
                      FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED. CONCRETE
                      BLOCK LOW RISE APARTMENTS WILL SUSTAIN MAJOR DAMAGE...INCLUDING SOME
                      WALL AND ROOF FAILURE.

                      HIGH RISE OFFICE AND APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL SWAY DANGEROUSLY...A
                      FEW TO THE POINT OF TOTAL COLLAPSE. ALL WINDOWS WILL BLOW OUT.

                      AIRBORNE DEBRIS WILL BE WIDESPREAD...AND MAY INCLUDE HEAVY ITEMS SUCH
                      AS HOUSEHOLD APPLIANCES AND EVEN LIGHT VEHICLES. SPORT UTILITY
                      VEHICLES AND LIGHT TRUCKS WILL BE MOVED. THE BLOWN DEBRIS WILL CREATE
                      ADDITIONAL DESTRUCTION. PERSONS...PETS...AND LIVESTOCK EXPOSED TO THE
                      WINDS WILL FACE CERTAIN DEATH IF STRUCK.

                      POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS...AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN
                      AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING
                      INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

                      THE VAST MAJORITY OF NATIVE TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY
                      THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING...BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED. FEW
                      CROPS WILL REMAIN. LIVESTOCK LEFT EXPOSED TO THE WINDS WILL BE
                      KILLED.

                      AN INLAND HURRICANE WIND WATCH IS ISSUED WHEN SUSTAINED WINDS NEAR
                      HURRICANE FORCE...OR FREQUENT GUSTS AT OR ABOVE HURRICANE FORCE...ARE
                      POSSIBLE WITHIN THE NEXT 24 TO 36 HOURS.

                      LAZ038-040-050-056>070-MSZ080>082-290300-
                      ASSUMPTION-HANCOCK-HARRISON-JACKSON-LIVINGSTON-LOWER JEFFERSON-
                      LOWER LAFOURCHE-LOWER PLAQUEMINES-LOWER ST. BERNARD-LOWER TERREBONNE-
                      ORLEANS-ST. CHARLES-ST. JAMES-ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST-ST. TAMMANY-
                      TANGIPAHOA-UPPER JEFFERSON-UPPER LAFOURCHE-UPPER PLAQUEMINES-
                      UPPER ST. BERNARD-UPPER TERREBONNE-
                      413 PM CDT SUN AUG 28 2005

                      http://weather.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/iwszone?Sites=:laz062
                      You, Never? Did the Kenosha Kid?

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

                        Hey Guys, Thanks for the concern. Right now, they are tellling us we should expect 110 mph sustained winds and 150 mph gusts. New Orleans may see 160 mph sustained winds, and gusts up to 200 mph.

                        Right now, its mostly thunderstorms and a 20-30 mph winds. Should be an interesting night.

                        And as for getting out of here, well for the last 48 hours, as Btown can testify to, is a huge traffic jam. No interest in a normal 9 hours trip extending into 20 hours. And there are no hotels available due to them selling out from all the people running from the storm, and many of the gas stations down here are out of gas. So if you get very far, you may get stuck due to lack of gas.......

                        We are about 10 miles off the shore inland, so we should be ok, I hope.

                        I'll keep updating every once in a while, at least until we lose power.

                        Thanks again for the concern. In the mean time, we're having a hurricane party with about 10 people that are riding the storm out with us in the house. Lots of Beer, food and liquor!!!!!!

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

                          They say on Yahoo that New Orleans is about to be Atlantis. That doesn't sound too good. Hope it's not too bad.

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

                            Gyron and whomever lives down there, I really hope you come out of this unharmed. My thoughts will be with you guys
                            Don't ask Marvin Harrison what he did during the bye week. "Batman never told where the Bat Cave is," he explained.

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

                              Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne both have family in New Orleans. I certainly hope that everyone is going to be ok. I hope the SuperDome holds up.

                              Why are people refusing to leave?
                              sigpic

                              2007 Super Bowl XLI Champions!

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Re: If New Orleans gets a direct hit from a cat 5 hurricane

                                Originally posted by pacercoltfan
                                Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne both have family in New Orleans. I certainly hope that everyone is going to be ok. I hope the SuperDome holds up.

                                Why are people refusing to leave?

                                Because the media has cried wolf a little too much and a little too soon with some of their previous 'hell storm' forecasts and people slowly start tuning them out.

                                This does appear to be the real deal.

                                -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

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