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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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Bob Ryan: Let's get this season over-- nobody cares and nobody is watching

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  • #1

    Bob Ryan: Let's get this season over-- nobody cares and nobody is watching

    http://www.boston.com/sports/basketb..._real_turnoff/

    BOB RYAN
    They've been a real turnoff
    By Bob Ryan, Globe Columnist | April 23, 2004

    0.5

    I'm no fan of television ratings, especially when it comes to sporting events. I know -- not guess, know -- that numerous sporting events are undercounted because, far more often than regular programming, sporting events are often viewed in the company of others. Ratings do not take into account private homes where clusters of people gather to watch certain events in a party-like atmosphere, nor do they take into consideration bars where big games are watched in great numbers. The current ratings procedure is a hopelessly inadequate way to evaluate the viewing habits of American sports fans.

    But 0.5 is something else entirely. When a sporting event has a 0.5 rating, it indicates a state of ennui that should alarm anyone making a livelihood from that team, or league. If that rating pertains to a playoff game, the situation is exponentially worse. It is, frankly, catastrophic.

    So what does that tell us about the current local position of the once-proud, 16-time NBA champion Boston Celtics? That 0.5 is what they drew locally for last Saturday afternoon's playoff game against the Indiana Pacers. That 0.5 translates into approximately 10,000 homes in Greater Boston, and an audience of 25,000 people. You want a frame of reference? The Revolution drew a 0.8 for their game Saturday night against the San Jose Earthquakes.

    The Celtics will play Indiana in Game 3 of their first-round series tonight at the Fleet. I am sure we will be told that the game is a sellout of 18,624, whether it is or not. It may even have the feel of a playoff game. But outside of what actually happens within those four walls, there will be no other local manifestation of an NBA playoff taking place in our town. In this town, the talk is of the Red Sox, who are in New York, the NFL Draft, which takes place tomorrow, of the Bruins' demise, and perhaps even of the Revolution. No one is talking about the Celtics, the Pacers, or the NBA.

    As one of my old history teachers used to say, "Oh, how the mighty have fallen."

    The Celtics are not a horrible team. They're surely not a very good team, either, but they aren't horrible. But their presence in the playoffs with a record of 36-46 is an embarrassment. If this were college ball, they would have been in a position to turn down the invitation to the tournament on the basis of unworthiness. It is strictly a byproduct of Eastern Conference ineptitude. The rules call for eight teams from each conference and, as mediocre as the Celtics were, seven teams were worse.

    They're going down, of course. This is a classic 1-vs.-8 series, the kind the Old Celtics, and Ye Olden Celtics, used to smirk at when they were the 1 and the other poor slobs were the 8. Oh, sure, Paul Pierce could go off for 45, and Jermaine O'Neal could get into foul trouble and the referees might serve up some good old-fashioned Home Court Stew and they could steal one, either tonight or Sunday afternoon. But that's it. One victory is the maximum, and none is more likely. The Celtics are going down, and then we shall see what Danny Ainge has in mind, come draft day.

    Danny has the requisite thick skin. He knows most people who still care think he has wrecked a good team and have serious doubts that he has the basketball smarts to put together a contending ball club. At first, he only had to deal with the Antoine Walker fans. Now there is a much wider base of criticism. The Cleveland trade was definitely not popular. It is still very doubtful that Ricky Davis and Boston will ever be a good fit. As talented as he is, the man may never get that elusive "it."

    I'm tired of hearing how young Ricky Davis still is. He is 24. When the Trail Blazers won it all in 1977, Maurice Lucas was 25, Bill Walton was 24, Lionel Hollins was 23, and Bob Gross was 23, and they constituted four-fifths of the Portland starting five in a league that featured a far higher percentage of grizzled vets than are present in the league today. I fear people will be making excuses for Davis's immaturity when he's 34.

    I have no problems with Ainge's stated goal, which is to get a younger, faster team that has a better balance of offense and defense than the team he took over ever had. Now the question is whether you want to accomplish this goal with the Ricky Davises of the world, or with players who don't force the truly knowledgeable fans you have left to reach for the cyanide pellets by the third quarter. Until Danny starts producing a few of those people, he will be known as the guy who brought us Ricky Davis, and nothing else.

    This is written as if, despite the 0.5 rating, someone still cares. This is written on the assumption that people simply need to be shown some sign of insight on the part of the team's executive director of basketball operations that can make them think there is some light, however dim, at the end of this tunnel.

    It probably makes sense that few people care about what's going on in the here and now, because with the Celtics, the only thing that matters is what lies ahead. The present matters to the coach, of course, even though he is sufficiently attuned to reality to know that someone else will be coaching the team next season. It matters to the owners, who are charmingly naive to begin with. But we know for a fact the present is of only slight interest to the executive director of basketball operations himself. If put in a "Don't quote me" mode, I'd bet Danny Ainge would say that he can understand the 0.5 because he's a lot more interested in what lies ahead than what's taking place now himself.

    So I'll say what he can't: Let's get the season over so we can turn our attention to hiring a coach, plotting the draft, and making assorted offseason moves. We already know all we need to know about this year's team.


    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    This article sums up the apathy of the fans in Boston. Listen to 8 hours of sports talk and you hear 4 hours on the Red Sox, 3:45 on the NFL draft, 10 minutes on other sports, and 5 minutes on the Celtics.
    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!).
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Bob Ryan: Let's get this season over-- nobody cares and nobody is watching

    I've said it before, but it bears repeating. In terms of popularity in Boston, here is the breakdown:

    Red Sox
    |
    Patriots (though they are quickly closing the gap with the Sox)
    |
    |
    |
    Bruins
    |
    candlepin bowling
    |
    |
    Celtics

    People will show up to the game from a matter of civic pride as much as anything else, but if push came to shove, they would admit that they care much, much more about the other teams in Boston than they do about the Celtics here.
    Your horse is dead, get off it already...

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: Bob Ryan: Let's get this season over-- nobody cares and nobody is watching

      Perhaps the Celtics are not so popular NOW, but that is to be expected in a sense.

      All this series shows is the difference between the NBA's #1 and #16

      That there is a huge gap is sure, but it is ever changing, as always.

      For the next couple of years, providing we keep it all together, the Pacers will be part of the elite, liek the Celtics once were, and once will be again, no team has ever stayed on top perpetual.

      A fixed dose of reality should hit some fans, but it IS reality.

      Glad our "downtime" is over






























      (for now)

      So Long And Thanks For All The Fish.

      If you've done 6 impossible things today?
      Then why not have Breakfast at Milliways!

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Bob Ryan: Let's get this season over-- nobody cares and nobody is watching

        I've said it before, but it bears repeating. In terms of popularity in Boston, here is the breakdown:

        Red Sox
        |
        Patriots (though they are quickly closing the gap with the Sox)
        |
        |
        |
        Bruins
        |
        candlepin bowling
        |
        |
        Celtics

        People will show up to the game from a matter of civic pride as much as anything else, but if push came to shove, they would admit that they care much, much more about the other teams in Boston than they do about the Celtics here.
        Well, ya gotta love a good candlepin bowling match.

        The tension, the excitement, the snoring ...
        The poster formerly known as Rimfire

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Bob Ryan: Let's get this season over-- nobody cares and nobody is watching

          Perhaps the Celtics are not so popular NOW, but that is to be expected in a sense.

          All this series shows is the difference between the NBA's #1 and #16
          Actually, the C's have not been so popular in Boston for awhile now. Part of it is due to the 10+ year playoff drought they had after the Bird years, part of it is due to the inept management the Celts have had since the early 90s (just look at some of the awful deals that Pitino did during his disasterous tenure), and most of it is due to the fact that basketball is just not as popular as the other sports around here.
          Your horse is dead, get off it already...

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Bob Ryan: Let's get this season over-- nobody cares and nobody is watching

            Wow - with all the talk about the Pacers crowds hard to believe they aren't even WATCHING in Boston!
            The best exercise of the human heart is reaching down and picking someone else up.

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Bob Ryan: Let's get this season over-- nobody cares and nobody is watching

              Actually, the C's were VERY popular around here in that two year period with Jim O'Brien.

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: Bob Ryan: Let's get this season over-- nobody cares and nobody is watching

                Actually, the C's were VERY popular around here in that two year period with Jim O'Brien.
                Well, that's relative to their popularity in the previous seasons when they were hopelessly out of the playoff race. But even then, no where near as popular as the Sox/Pats, and not as many of the diehard fans were still there as always seem to be with the Bruins. There were some bandwagon fans that came out of the woodwork when they made the ECFs a couple of years ago, but it's hard to compete when the Sox and Pats are doing well. Heck, IMO a lot of people around here were paying more attention to the Sox/Yanks AL series last year than the fact that the Pats were steamrolling their way to another run at the Super Bowl.
                Your horse is dead, get off it already...

                Comment

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