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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"

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"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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(Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

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  • (Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

    Deal delay drags on
    By Sekou Smith | Sunday, July 30, 2006, 08:24 PM

    The Atlanta Journal-Constitution



    Patience is a virtue all you Hawks fans must have in surplus. Because here we are, nearly a month after the free agent negotiation period began, and there is still no completed sign-and-trade deal for Al Harrington and most of you are still here. Your perseverance in this matter is admirable. This is the second straight summer you’ve all had to wait like this (like I wrote last week, Joe Johnson wasn’t officially a Hawk until Aug. 19 last summer).

    For certain, it’s beyond maddening for all involved. Well, almost all involved. But this second straight summer of seeming uncertainty will take a toll elsewhere. And follow me here, but I believe that the Hawks are treading into dangerously deep waters this summer by not consummating this Harrington deal sooner.

    Because while players will always’come when their bottom line is money, and sometimes the dollars are so overwhelming a player can’t deny them. When building a team, though, a quality, playoff-hungry team, you need seasoned role players. And those role players are usually acquired during these dog days of summer. And while the Hawks spend months every summer to finish their major transaction, other teams are doing business at a pace much more conducive to an immediate transformation of both their roster and culture.


    The rebuilding the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets embarked upon is already weeks into the making because they didn’t hesitate to make moves. They consummated them as soon as legally possible and began the transition process as soon as it was feasible.

    Say what you will about the Pacers and this Harrington deal, the rest of their summer makeover hasn’t slowed down because this main affair has taken longer than they might have liked. The Milwaukee Bucks have quietly reshaped their roster with a series of shrewd moves (the latest reportedly the move of Jamaal Magloire to Portland for Steve Blake, Brian Skinner and Ha Seung Jin).

    If the Hawks were a team in need of less tinkering - a playoff team already and one that needs only mild tweaking and not a drastic overhaul - I might not be as concerned. But after speaking with players, agents, team officials and people in general from other NBA teams, the one question they all have is what’s going on with the Hawks?

    That’s code for what’s the deal with the ownership situation and what are they doing down there to fix that team? (And while few people are speaking about any of this and so much more on the record, rest assured that plenty is being said off the record.)


    The ownership situation is what it is, which is a process that promises to carry on for the foreseeable future without a promising ending for all involved. But the fixing of the team, that’s something that can’t be disputed. That’s something that should have tangible results after an offseason of working the phones and studying every possible avenue for curing your own ills. Speedy Claxton was a huge step in that direction, whether you want to believe it or not. And that leaves the Hawks’ search for another big man as the last major move they need to make before moving on to seeing how their roster shapes up with training camp in sight. The remaining candidates are few - former Hawk Lorenzen Wright is the most attractive and sensible option out there and is very much a possibility.

    But much like everything else about this Hawks offseason, patience is the word that you need to repeat 100 times per hour, per day, while watching these things play out.

    AJC.com

    Why Not Us ?


  • #2
    Re: (Harrington)Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

    Nothing we didn't already know *sigh*...

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: (Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

      Lets just hope Billy Knight reads this!

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: (Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

        I'm sure he'll see it during his daily pacers digest lurk....

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: (Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

          But like me he'll only read the bolded part and then decide even that is too much to read.

          The mistake is someone on here said it wasn't a big deal if this dragged on until Sept.









          Hi, Billy. I still like you.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: (Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

            The problem is that BK isn't helping anyone. He isn't helping himself, the Pacers, the Hawks, or Al. He is just afraid of making a mistake like he did in last year's JJ trade, (which was over-shadowed by the Eddy Curry deal but in reality is a much worse trade...the Suns got the best player in the trade and two very probably good draft picks in two deep drafts (top 3 protected in '07 but not protected otherwise) as well as a 6 million trade exception). He knows that if he does nothing, he can't make a mistake. Well...in reality, he is. This trade needs to happen soon for everybody's sanity.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: (Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

              I posted this on the Pacers RealGM board......but if all they are asking for.....a Future 1st round pick.....take on Edwards $1.08 mil contract.....and $3mil cash.....then it would simply boil down to how much protection that the Pacers are willing to give up.

              Keeping in mind that this is the Pacers that we are talking about......you never know when injuries are going to decimate the Pacers chance at the Playoffs....and therefore the liklihood that we maybe a lottery team. I know the Hawks fans are going to suggest that it should be completely unprotected given that we are giving up close to nothing to get Harrington......but I would guess TPTB would want some type of protection ( within reason ) on it given the Bulls/Knicks swap.

              Reallistically......if all they are asking for is just the Draft pick, $$$, take on Edwards 1.08 mil contract and the T/E ( I guess )...that is very little to ask for. It just comes down to the protection of the pick.
              Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: (Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

                AFAIK it's the cash that's the hold up. To have us take on Edwards, and for us to give them a pick, it's technically going to be two trades. So my thinking is, since a trade can include up to $3mm, they probably want us to give a total of $6mm in cash (3 in the Al trade, 3 in the Edwards trade), and we're saying no. That's just a guess.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: (Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

                  I'm still not convinced that Harrington will help you that much. He'll be a 13-15 pt and 6-7 board player who is a pretty good defender.

                  The problem is, to really use him you'd have JO playing out of position at center and you'd limit Granger who IMO is more versatile and within a year or two will be a better player.

                  A good outside shooter or two will help you more than Harrington. And I still think if Tinsley goes down you'll have maybe the worst PG - whoever it is - in the entire league.

                  The guy you needed - with the AJ trade - was David Wesley. But he's gone. You need to find someone else along the same line.
                  The poster formerly known as Rimfire

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: (Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

                    Originally posted by Hicks
                    AFAIK it's the cash that's the hold up. To have us take on Edwards, and for us to give them a pick, it's technically going to be two trades. So my thinking is, since a trade can include up to $3mm, they probably want us to give a total of $6mm in cash (3 in the Al trade, 3 in the Edwards trade), and we're saying no. That's just a guess.
                    Hicks...breaking out the old Animaniacs Chicken Boo reference.....

                    Why can't it be a single "All in one" trade? It is because of league rules?
                    Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: (Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

                      Originally posted by DisplacedKnick
                      I'm still not convinced that Harrington will help you that much. He'll be a 13-15 pt and 6-7 board player who is a pretty good defender.

                      The problem is, to really use him you'd have JO playing out of position at center and you'd limit Granger who IMO is more versatile and within a year or two will be a better player.

                      A good outside shooter or two will help you more than Harrington. And I still think if Tinsley goes down you'll have maybe the worst PG - whoever it is - in the entire league.

                      The guy you needed - with the AJ trade - was David Wesley. But he's gone. You need to find someone else along the same line.
                      With Harrington...yes...it would ultimately mean that JONeal would have to play more Center minutes....but given our likely lineup....I don't think that it will adversely affect Granger's minutes. We can easily run a 9-player rotation and still be able to give Harrington, SJax, JONeal, Marquis and Granger 30-32 mpg. The problem is that this is all at the expense of giving any minutes to White and Shawne while limiting Foster and Harrison each to about 15-20 minutes a game.
                      Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: (Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

                        Originally posted by CableKC
                        Hicks...breaking out the old Animaniacs Chicken Boo reference.....

                        Why can't it be a single "All in one" trade? It is because of league rules?
                        What I've read has said that the Trade Exception can't be combined with players (or picks I think).

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: (Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

                          Originally posted by CableKC
                          With Harrington...yes...it would ultimately mean that JONeal would have to play more Center minutes....but given our likely lineup....I don't think that it will adversely affect Granger's minutes. We can easily run a 9-player rotation and still be able to give Harrington, SJax, JONeal, Marquis and Granger 30-32 mpg. The problem is that this is all at the expense of giving any minutes to White and Shawne while limiting Foster and Harrison each to about 15-20 minutes a game.
                          I don't think you'd limit Granger's minutes as much as his opportunities to become an impact player on offense. We all remember Harrington when he was here before. He'll want his touches and to be a featured player on offense.

                          I think in the long run you're better off with Granger developing his ability to work as a slasher off of JO's post play. But maybe not - maybe Harrington will be content with 8-10 shots/game.
                          The poster formerly known as Rimfire

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: (Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

                            Originally posted by Hicks
                            What I've read has said that the Trade Exception can't be combined with players (or picks I think).
                            I believe we easily have enough of a trade exception from the AJ trade with Dallas to acquire Edwards, if that is what we ultimately have to do.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: (Harrington) Deal delay drags on -Atlanta Journal

                              That's correct; I forgot about the second TE. However it would still have to be two trades since you can't combine TE's either.

                              Comment

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