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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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The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

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  • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

    Originally posted by bellisimo View Post
    what makes it so obvious that you're a human?
    all you do is try to create hitlists to get the people going in a voting frenzy for someone in your list...
    and I have to applaud you for pulling it off so well.
    I thought I was blabbering?

    I'm not trying to create hit lists, I ám creating hit lists.

    I'm always trying to back those up in a logical way. I always thought you were human, but one fact and a very likely assumption seem to 'prove' me wrong.

    I promise this will be the last list (or maybe just one more... ). If I'm wrong again, you might as well hang me to get rid of a human puppet of the wolves.

    Seriously, if I were a wolf, I wouldn't be motivated enough to come up with another theory over and over again.
    Word on the street is he doesn't want your money, he only wants to please your ears...
    Bum in Berlin on Myspace

    Comment


    • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

      Originally posted by Raskolnikov View Post
      I guess it is a wolf strategy to try and make everyone as indecisive as bellisimo by questioning every principle someone else assumes (in this case, that two wolves would never continuously accuse each other of being a wolf).

      It's also a wolf strategy to be indecisive, like bellisimo. Or to be extremely quiet, like Hoop. Or to be SycamoreKen, like SycamoreKen. Or to be quiet and chime in an accusation every once in a while, like Pig Nash.
      alright...I'm confused there...
      at first you're saying that the wolves are making me indecisive about what to do....and then you're saying that I'm a wolf for being indecisive?
      not sure if I understood you correctly.

      Comment


      • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

        Originally posted by Raskolnikov View Post
        I'm always trying to back those up in a logical way. I always thought you were human, but one fact and a very likely assumption seem to 'prove' me wrong.
        and what might that be?
        Are you talking about the time I voted for Anthem?
        maybe you should look at the reason why I voted for him...
        it was either him or me at the time...if I didn't vote for him, I might've gotten hanged all thanks for Pig Nash's false accusation!

        Comment


        • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

          Originally posted by bellisimo View Post
          alright...I'm confused there...
          at first you're saying that the wolves are making me indecisive about what to do....and then you're saying that I'm a wolf for being indecisive?
          not sure if I understood you correctly.
          There you do it again!

          My point is that you have been rather indecisive during the whole game. It was the way you played the game. The rationale then is that Fool tried, by being critical of everything and everyone, to make other humans as indecisive as you. If every vote is just a shot in the dark, chances are slim that we hang a wolf.
          Word on the street is he doesn't want your money, he only wants to please your ears...
          Bum in Berlin on Myspace

          Comment


          • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

            Originally posted by Raskolnikov View Post
            There you do it again!

            My point is that you have been rather indecisive during the whole game. It was the way you played the game. The rationale then is that Fool tried, by being critical of everything and everyone, to make other humans as indecisive as you. If every vote is just a shot in the dark, chances are slim that we hang a wolf.
            holy....
            I'm a n00b to this "game"...so thats why I've been so indecisive...cause everything you do gets nitpicked...hence I'm trying to figure out the way this game works so that instead of just taking a shot in the dark or creating one hit list after another...I could vote for someone that makes sense. honestly I didn't really generate a persona for this game...hell I didn't even know that I should've created a persona...I'm just being me...
            yes...even in real life Im this indecisive

            Comment


            • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

              Originally posted by bellisimo View Post
              and what might that be?
              Are you talking about the time I voted for Anthem?
              maybe you should look at the reason why I voted for him...
              it was either him or me at the time...if I didn't vote for him, I might've gotten hanged all thanks for Pig Nash's false accusation!
              It's not that one vote. It's the process of elimination, based on PN's and the five possible wolves' voting behaviour. Re-read

              http://www.pacersdigest.com/forums/s...&postcount=690

              and

              http://www.pacersdigest.com/forums/s...&postcount=691

              If you're human, then just tell me where my rationale breaks down.

              (You're just going to have to accept that Shade and I are human. If I'm human, and I know I am, then Shade is definitely human as well.)

              Again, of the four in my current hit list, I'm most sure about Hoop and Ken. But you and Fool just remained in the list, while others whom I suspected more before, like Mourning, were eliminated. Did I righteously eliminate them? I think so. But if I didn't, please tell me.
              Word on the street is he doesn't want your money, he only wants to please your ears...
              Bum in Berlin on Myspace

              Comment


              • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

                Originally posted by bellisimo
                holy....
                I'm a n00b to this "game"...so thats why I've been so indecisive...cause everything you do gets nitpicked...hence I'm trying to figure out the way this game works so that instead of just taking a shot in the dark or creating one hit list after another...I could vote for someone that makes sense. honestly I didn't really generate a persona for this game...hell I didn't even know that I should've created a persona...I'm just being me...
                yes...even in real life Im this indecisive
                Hey, so am I. Don't worry about it.

                Apparently in this game I'm more decisive.

                And I'm new as well. For long I thought none of the new guys would get a special role, because, for instance, I didn't. Along with other reasons that was one of the reasons why I thought you were human. But I guess it is a dangerous assumption.

                The assumption that I used to create my latest theory seems a lot more likely.
                Word on the street is he doesn't want your money, he only wants to please your ears...
                Bum in Berlin on Myspace

                Comment


                • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

                  Originally posted by Raskolnikov View Post
                  http://www.pacersdigest.com/forums/s...&postcount=690

                  If you're human, then just tell me where my rationale breaks down.

                  this is where your rationale breaks down...

                  at first this is what you're mentioning...
                  I however do think it's a fair assumption that he would never initiate a vote, or vote for a fellow wolf on a crucial moment. Let's analyze his voting and accusing behaviour.
                  Then Pig Nash votes for you when its clear that PollardFreek would be the one to get hanged with the majority of the votes...

                  doesn't that conflict with each other already?

                  And then going back to your assumption of a crucial moment or initiating a vote...Pig Nash initiates by voting for me when only 4 people had casted their votes...

                  those two points alone throw your whole assumption of me being a wolf out the window.

                  Comment


                  • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

                    Originally posted by bellisimo View Post
                    this is where your rationale breaks down...

                    at first this is what you're mentioning...


                    Then Pig Nash votes for you when its clear that PollardFreek would be the one to get hanged with the majority of the votes...

                    doesn't that conflict with each other already?

                    And then going back to your assumption of a crucial moment or initiating a vote...Pig Nash initiates by voting for me when only 4 people had casted their votes...

                    those two points alone throw your whole assumption of me being a wolf out the window.
                    No.

                    First of all, I said

                    1. Rasko: it was the second vote for me and at this point pollard already had 7 votes. There was no risk at all in this vote, so this doesn't prove anything.
                    In my theory I'm assuming that I'm human, because I know that I'm human. I'm not trying to prove it anymore, because I know there will be many to deny that again.

                    Second of all, I also said

                    2. Bellisimo: here he initiates the vote for belli, immediately followed by Tyrion. At that point, there were two people with two votes, Anthem and Mourning. Seems a bit risky to start voting for one of his fellow wolves. He could've easily voted for Anthem or Mourning, if they're human.
                    and

                    5. SycamoreKen: I don't really know what to think about this vote. Mourning already had 2, Anthem had 2 or 3. I guess this situation is very similar to the one where he voted bellisimo. Except with belli he was seconded by Tyrion. Still seems risky, but no certainties here.
                    The cases where Pig Nash voted Soup and Mourning were the only ones were he took a big risk (if Soup and Mourning would be wolves). In your and Ken's case, the risk was a lot lower. That's why Soup and Mourning were scratched off the list, and you weren't.
                    Word on the street is he doesn't want your money, he only wants to please your ears...
                    Bum in Berlin on Myspace

                    Comment


                    • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

                      Originally posted by Raskolnikov View Post
                      No.

                      First of all, I said

                      In my theory I'm assuming that I'm human, because I know that I'm human. I'm not trying to prove it anymore, because I know there will be many to deny that again.

                      Second of all, I also said

                      and

                      The cases where Pig Nash voted Soup and Mourning were the only ones were he took a big risk (if Soup and Mourning would be wolves). In yours and Ken's case, the risk was a lot lower. That's why Soup and Mourning were scratched off the list, and you weren't.
                      In the first instance...you can say it doesn't prove anything to your "standards" but it emphasizes that a known wolf, could very well be voting for another fellow wolf when he knows that the vote he is giving out to...in this case this being you...will not get lynched...

                      how is this ANY different than my scenario? where in my scenario, the risk was much higher!

                      Comment


                      • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

                        Originally posted by bellisimo View Post
                        In the first instance...you can say it doesn't prove anything to your "standards" but it emphasizes that a known wolf, could very well be voting for another fellow wolf when he knows that the vote he is giving out to...in this case this being you...will not get lynched...

                        how is this ANY different than my scenario? where in my scenario, the risk was much higher!
                        Yes, with you the risk was higher. (but not too high; nobody had suspected you before and it looked like it was going to be a race between Anthem and Mourning anyway. PN's vote seemed rather random and thus it wasn't very likely someone was going to follow him. Surprisingly, Ty did.)

                        The risk was zero when PN voted for me. That's why I'm saying that PN's vote for me doesn't prove anything. Neither does it emphasize anything, like you're implying. Based on that fact only, I could be human, or as much as likely, be a wolf.

                        The only reason I scratched myself off the list is because I know I'm human.

                        Again, if you're human, you have nothing to fear from me right now. I'm most sure about Hoop and Ken. A lot can happen along the way that forces me to change my opinion about you.
                        Word on the street is he doesn't want your money, he only wants to please your ears...
                        Bum in Berlin on Myspace

                        Comment


                        • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

                          Originally posted by Raskolnikov View Post
                          Yes, with you the risk was higher. (but not too high; nobody had suspected you before and it looked like it was going to be a race between Anthem and Mourning anyway. PN's vote seemed rather random and thus it wasn't very likely someone was going to follow him. Surprisingly, Ty did.)

                          The risk was zero when PN voted for me. That's why I'm saying that PN's vote for me doesn't prove anything. Neither does it emphasize anything, like you're implying. Based on that fact only, I could be human, or as much as likely, be a wolf.

                          The only reason I scratched myself off the list is because I know I'm human.

                          Again, if you're human, you have nothing to fear from me right now. I'm most sure about Hoop and Ken. A lot can happen along the way that forces me to change my opinion about you.

                          its just that Im on vacation right now...hence I have limited access to the internet...last thing I want to happen is to come back to see you hang another innocent human like myself while I was away...
                          that's all i'm tryin to prevent.

                          Comment


                          • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

                            Now that I think of it, I'd like to remind Robertmto of our little bet.

                            If at least 3 of the 5 people on this list

                            SIG
                            Anthem
                            Rasko
                            Shade
                            Pig Nash

                            are wolves, he wins and I have to put a picture of his liking in my sig. If at least 3 of those 5 are human, I win and he has to put "I've lost a bet to the mighty Raskolnikov. That's why I have to put this in my sig." in his sig.

                            Thus far, Rob leads with one proven wolf (PN). According to my latest theory however, none of the remaining on the list are wolves. We'll see how it pans out.
                            Word on the street is he doesn't want your money, he only wants to please your ears...
                            Bum in Berlin on Myspace

                            Comment


                            • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

                              Current voting tally:

                              Anthem: 1 vote (Ken)
                              Ken: 1 vote (Anthem)
                              Hoop: 4 votes (Shade, Rasko, Mourning, bellisimo)
                              Rasko: 1 vote (Fool)

                              Haven't voted yet:

                              SoupIsGood
                              Hoop
                              Word on the street is he doesn't want your money, he only wants to please your ears...
                              Bum in Berlin on Myspace

                              Comment


                              • Re: The Wolf Game Begins, Returns and it's United

                                Since SIG and Hoop will not be able to change my mind on this one I am going to follow Rasko's theory and hope he proves right. Today we send Hoop to the gallows and hope that he shows us those pearly whites.


                                Comment

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