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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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Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

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  • Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

    If Ron is not traded this year and Walsh decides to put him on the IR list how would your reaction be?

  • #2
    Re: Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

    :shakehead I've been traumatized for life.

    Really, I'd be upset because we cant keep going in and out of games dressing 9 people and even when JO and Tins get better, we're still gonna need all the fire power we can get. but IF it is really worth the wait like if DW had something planned with a team but for some reason the deal had to wait then I'd most likely be okay waiting.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

      I won't be happy, but I won't be surprised either. However for now I expect something to happen in the next couple weeks because of how long this has gone, how close we've already come to making a deal, and the fact that it is so quiet right now. I woke up this morning after what's already been several quiet days, to find the trade rumor thread has 0 replies since last night. NOTHING has been said this morning.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

        I look at it like this. Even if we do get a quality player for Ron this year, no way we compete for a championship this year. Sure we get to the playoffs and maybe even squeak past the first round.

        IMO, it's going to take off season moves and maybe even a year or two after that before we're back up to championship considerations.

        So I feel that it doesn't really matter how long it takes this year. I don't think that it's going to make a significant impact for at least a year anyway.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

          If an Artest trade is not made by the trade deadline, I will be disappointed. Very much so. But life will go on and the summer will be all that more interesting.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

            I'm far less worried about the trade and more worried that we are going to have another lackluster season.

            Last year hopes were high coming off a great season. The brawl killed it and we never recovered.

            This year we had all out main players back and Artest was set to return us to glory. The way we started off the year tainted my enthusiasm and then Artest squashed it like a bug with his shoe.

            The only way this trade matters to me is if it brings somebody who can help us win. I'd much rather wait instead of picking up a stiff like Chris Mihm or Kwame Brown. If those are the only people we can get in a trade, please don't do it. At least give me hope that something can be done.

            I think we will push for a trade by the deadline so we can A.) Get a player to help us and B.) Knock another team out of consideration by delivering them the cancer that is Ron Artest.
            “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


            • #7
              Re: Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

              Originally posted by brichard
              I'm far less worried about the trade and more worried that we are going to have another lackluster season.

              Last year hopes were high coming off a great season. The brawl killed it and we never recovered.

              This year we had all out main players back and Artest was set to return us to glory. The way we started off the year tainted my enthusiasm and then Artest squashed it like a bug with his shoe.

              The only way this trade matters to me is if it brings somebody who can help us win. I'd much rather wait instead of picking up a stiff like Chris Mihm or Kwame Brown. If those are the only people we can get in a trade, please don't do it. At least give me hope that something can be done.
              You know what this season is feeling like to me? That first season when Isah took over. You never knew what to expect and every game was a new adventure in team identity.

              I'm all for waiting to make a trade. I think the lack of pressure in the off season would do wonders for negotiations.
              Hey! What're you kicking me for? You want me to ask? All right, I'll ask! Ma'am, where do the high school girls hang out in this town?

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

                If we can't get anything really good by the deadline, then I am ok with waiting. Its not like we are close to contending with Detroit or SA this year, and it is satisfying to know Ron is having to sit and not play and there is nothing he can do about it after all he has done to our team the last two years. We may be able to make a better trade this summer.

                I do feel for the players though, for their sake I would like to see this over with so they can really move on and not have to look over their shoulder wondering who may be going with Ron. It has to be hard on Coach too, 2 years of a four year contract wasted because of Ron.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

                  Whether we trade Artest or not doesn't matter to me but what
                  does is if we make no move at all for good or very good players.
                  If a team only wants draft picks and expiring contracts than i wouldn't
                  hesitate. What bothers me is that other teams seem to able and
                  willing to get All-Stars for this and somehow we can't make it happen.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

                    As long as he never puts on the blue and gold again, I'm okay.

                    We're better off without him than with him. Of course, getting something in return would be icing on the cake.

                    Repeat after me, "We weren't really contenders in the first place."

                    Look at Tom's avatar, and add two more trash cans. That's what every Ron Artest team can look forward to. Give the Pacers 18 months to re-tool the team and build some chemistry, and then they will be real, not pretend, contenders.
                    Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
                    Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
                    Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
                    Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
                    And life itself, rushing over me
                    Life itself, the wind in black elms,
                    Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

                      I'm going to be pissed

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

                        It would be the perfect ending to the most depressing two years in Indiana pro sports.


                        Of course, I wouldn't be okay with it. I'd rather get Tim Thomas or Antonio Davis' expiring contract and a draft pick for Artest and Pollard than just go the season without him.

                        If the Pacers don't trade Artest and get someone who can help the team this year, they might as well get out of Salary Cap jail and build for next year because it'll mean that they've given up on this season.

                        Another thought is, if the Pacers are giving up on the season, why not just play Artest? Who cares if he wreaks the chemistry, especially if the Pacers are just gonna tank another season anyway?

                        I know that's a terrible idea but IMO it's no worse than not trading Artest before the trading deadline.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

                          Originally posted by Skaut_Ech
                          You know what this season is feeling like to me? That first season when Isah took over. You never knew what to expect and every game was a new adventure in team identity.

                          I'm all for waiting to make a trade. I think the lack of pressure in the off season would do wonders for negotiations.
                          I totally agree.

                          I believe that some of the possible trades that could be made before the trade deadline involve players in the final years of their contracts. And acquiring such a player certainly introduces a significant risk to the Pacers... we could end up giving away Artest for nothing if the player doesn't re-sign.

                          So, if nothing else, waiting until summer gives the Pacers several more options and also reduces their risk. A sign-and-trade could be worked out.

                          Also, once the exact positioning of lottery teams is known, it might open up a trade with one of those teams for a combination of players and picks.

                          During the summer, I think it is more likely that additional Pacers could be involved in the trade without an immediate risk of totally messing up continuity like it would while the season is ongoing.

                          There must be several reasons to either do the trade before the deadline or wait until summer. But, especially in light of the fact that it doesn't appear the Pacers can become anything special this season, I would guess that there is probably a much bigger advantage in waiting.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

                            Originally posted by GetOdom
                            If Ron is not traded this year and Walsh decides to put him on the IR list how would your reaction be?
                            One, it's not possible for Walsh to put Ron on the IR list. Why? Because there is no IR list. Injured Reserve (IR) is the previous name for the Inactive List. Teams used to stash uninjured players on the IR is the reason it was changed. Once put on the IR list a player had to stay for 5 days. Now teams can change players day to day.

                            Two, Walsh put Ron on the Inactive List weeks ago, and my reaction was I wasn't surprised.

                            Three, if Bird and Walsh are not happy with the offers they get before the deadline I expect them to keep Ron and wait until the off season to trade him. I would rather have a trade before the deadline, but if they wait until the off season I won't be unhappy about it.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Would you be okay if no deal happend this year

                              Originally posted by naptownmenace
                              Another thought is, if the Pacers are giving up on the season, why not just play Artest? Who cares if he wreaks the chemistry, especially if the Pacers are just gonna tank another season anyway?

                              I know that's a terrible idea but IMO it's no worse than not trading Artest before the trading deadline.
                              You really would need fifteen new players if management attempted to bring him back to the team.

                              You might get the first on-court, bench clearing fight among only players from the same team. I wonder what David Stern would do then...

                              I wonder if it would be 10 vs. 2 or if the slugging might break off into three or four different factions? Would the guys in street clothes also get involved?
                              Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
                              Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
                              Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
                              Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
                              And life itself, rushing over me
                              Life itself, the wind in black elms,
                              Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you

                              Comment

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