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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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Article on the Brawl..

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  • Article on the Brawl..

    Hey everyone .

    Here is an article I wrote on the brawl for my school newspaper. It is a sports editorial. To prepare for writing it I watched the fight again on youtube. I recommend not doing this, because it was very painful. It's written somewhat simple because I wanted to tell it like an anecdote so non-NBA fans could enjoy it. Here it is.

    Basketbrawl Diaries
    by Quinn Brown
    December means three things to me: presents, big budget films, and NBA. Lots of NBA. Every sports fan’s dream is a championship run by their favorite team, and basketball is no different. As the season ticks on, I see this as an opportune time to reflect on a horrendous event of three years ago, one that crushed any chance I had of celebrating an NBA championship.
    My favorite team is the Indiana Pacers. I’m not exactly sure what a “pacer” is, but our mascot is a big, blue cat who wears the team’s white and gold uniform and dunks by jumping off of trampolines, a feat typically expected of a mascot. The pride of the Pacers is now-retired Reggie Miller, precocious hotshot out of UCLA who is often referred to as the best three point shooter of all time. In the 2004-05 NBA season, Reggie’s game was still intact and the talented Pacers squad was mentioned among the league’s elite. A championship seemed inevitable. Then it happened.
    November 19, 2004 - a date that, like Pearl Harbor and the day that I decided to cut my own hair, lives in infamy. The Pacers were playing the Detroit Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Michigan. Pacers superstar Ron Artest was shoved in the face by Piston Ben Wallace and reacted passively by humorously laying down on top of the scorer’s table. A cup of beer was thrown by a Pistons fan and hit Artest in the face, leading him to impulsively charge the stands. Havoc ensued as players fought fans, players fought players, drunken fans accidentally fought their friends, and Pacers guard Jamaal Tinsley attempted to fight no one in particular with a giant metal dust pan. The “Malice at the Palace” was the most shocking television event of the 21st century (it has since been topped by FEMA doing nothing during Hurricane Katrina). I stared at my TV in disbelief as my Pacers were hauled off the court by security. Five Pacers players were suspended (Artest for the remainder of the season), while the Pistons suffered only one significant suspension of a measly six games. The player happened to be Ben Wallace, the one essentially responsible for starting it all (for proof, search “Pacers Pistons” on YouTube).
    After the brawl, the Pacers’ dominance quickly faded. Artest once again became a loose cannon and was shipped to the Sacramento Kings, Reggie retired and many heartbroken fans became apathetic. I have spent the last three years of my life in denial, recreating the ‘04-05 Pacers team on basketball video games and adding myself, 5’8’’ point guard Quinn Brown, drafted out of high school, to the roster. After changing the difficulty to the easiest setting, I lead the Pacers to consecutive NBA championships.
    Showing little resilience, the Pacers are currently regarded, somewhat inaccurately, as one of the worst teams in the NBA. But oh well, the Colts won the Super Bowl.
    Last edited by RickSmitsFan; 12-02-2007, 09:42 PM.
    "Think about it. At best, Ming develops into a bigger, more athletic Rik Smits." -Bill Simmons

  • #2
    Re: Article on the Brawl..

    I have to disagree about the part you mention about Ben Wallace being
    responsible for starting it all.

    Its pretty clear to me Artest started it with his idiotic and completely
    uneccessary hard shove to Wallace when the game was already in
    the bag.

    Had it not been for Artest's stupidity it would have never happened, nor
    would it have escalated to what it did.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Article on the Brawl..

      Originally posted by RamBo_Lamar View Post
      I have to disagree about the part you mention about Ben Wallace being
      responsible for starting it all.

      Its pretty clear to me Artest started it with his idiotic and completely
      uneccessary hard shove to Wallace when the game was already in
      the bag.

      Had it not been for Artest's stupidity it would have never happened, nor
      would it have escalated to what it did.
      There is no way you can construe that as Artest's fault. Does every hard foul deserve a fight breaking out? If you don't know the answer to that then you're more clueless than I thought.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Article on the Brawl..

        11/19 and pearl harbor should not be mentioned in the same breath, even as a semi-sarcastic remark.

        You go even further comparing the drama to hurricane Katrina.

        I find it best not to compare sports tragedies with real-life tragedies. It makes it seem like you're losing grip on reality.

        BTW, the cup did not hit artest in the face, it hit him in the midsection.
        Last edited by Kstat; 12-02-2007, 10:45 PM.

        It wasn't about being the team everyone loved, it was about beating the teams everyone else loved.

        Division Champions 1955, 1956, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
        Conference Champions 1955, 1956, 1988, 2005
        NBA Champions 1989, 1990, 2004

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Article on the Brawl..

          Well done.
          Read my Pacers blog:
          8points9seconds.com

          Follow my twitter:

          @8pts9secs

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Article on the Brawl..

            You guys are a smidge critical for a school newspapers don't you think? I thought it was a pretty good article smits fan

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Article on the Brawl..

              I like the part about Tinsley and the dust pan.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Article on the Brawl..

                Originally posted by RamBo_Lamar View Post
                I have to disagree about the part you mention about Ben Wallace being
                responsible for starting it all.

                Its pretty clear to me Artest started it with his idiotic and completely
                uneccessary hard shove to Wallace when the game was already in
                the bag.

                Had it not been for Artest's stupidity it would have never happened, nor
                would it have escalated to what it did.
                I think it would have been about 20 percent of the incident it became if Jackson had not run into the stands throwing roundhouse punches.
                "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Article on the Brawl..

                  Originally posted by TheDon View Post
                  You guys are a smidge critical for a school newspapers don't you think? I thought it was a pretty good article smits fan
                  No kidding, have you guys read a high school paper lately? Good job man.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Article on the Brawl..

                    I liked it. Good humour, though I think you should have added another joke in place of the FEMA line. That seemed a bit serious for the vibe of the article.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Article on the Brawl..

                      The real question is... If Wallace doesn't throw the towel... does Green still throw the cup? IMHO... no, Green wasn't smart enough to come up with that on his own. Wallace threw the towel turned the light bulb on in Greens head, a very dim one.
                      "He wanted to get to that money time. Time when the hardware was on the table. That's when Roger was going to show up. So all we needed to do was stay close"
                      Darnell Hillman (Speaking of former teammate Roger Brown)

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Article on the Brawl..

                        Originally posted by McKeyFan View Post
                        I think it would have been about 20 percent of the incident it became if Jackson had not run into the stands throwing roundhouse punches.
                        I did what I had too do, why you trippin?

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Article on the Brawl..

                          Originally posted by McKeyFan View Post
                          I think it would have been about 20 percent of the incident it became if Jackson had not run into the stands throwing roundhouse punches.
                          Yeah, because those fans were well under control before that with no signs of screaming for blood, no sign of Ben's brother leaving his seat to move 2 sections closer to Ron (before settling for the back of Fred's head), and no potential felons ready to rip chairs out to throw at someone.


                          No hard foul warrants even a cup thrown and frankly Ben flipped out about a play that Ron shrugged off when it happened to him shortly before that. But that I got, that's guys in the heat of battle feeling the physical affects of hard play. Green and the 3 jerks with him pounding their fists and screaming for a fight BEFORE the cup flies were the problem. You put those types of people in a situation without Ron OR Jackson even and you still get a brawl.

                          The decent Pistons fans had left, or did shortly after things turned sour. All that was left was drunks and hateful fans with questionable backgrounds. A few hundred people of that sort are always bad news.


                          The sad thing is that the focus was always on Ron, the Pacers, all the players, the NBA and "thug style". The focus should have been on why there were a few hundred people in the arena that night with the same attitude of that father and son combo in Chicago a few years prior, and how these behaviors signaled a growing problem with accepted social behavior (especially from crowds).

                          But that's boring and might have actually solved the issue, thus eliminating more chances for this. Better to have hecklers like the DC fan or the guy Maxwell socked or John Green, along with the "fun" fallout of their actions.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Article on the Brawl..

                            I support you Jax. And for the Pistons fan earlier, I'm so you couldn't enjoy the article, but I probably couldn't either if a player from my team and my team's fans (Green and the scumbags who poured beverages on our exiting players) were responsible for the incident. Ron Artest is a hustle player who, as the reigning defensive player of the year over your Ben Wallace, tried his hardest now matter how much time was on the clock and no matter what the scoreboard said. His teammate got beat so his help defense was a hard foul that, according to almost anyone who watches the video, wasn't even that hard. Ron puts his hand up after the play to say, "my bad," but Ben is a brute who couldn't accept that. The FEMA line isn't so much of a joke than it is a sad truth.
                            Last edited by RickSmitsFan; 12-03-2007, 04:13 AM.
                            "Think about it. At best, Ming develops into a bigger, more athletic Rik Smits." -Bill Simmons

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Article on the Brawl..

                              on a side note - we should be glad it wasn't the same cup from 2 girls 1 cup video....

                              Comment

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