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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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Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

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  • Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

    In an effort to get the discussion back to basketball - Today I was looking at the eastern conference standings and noticed the Pacers have the 4th best record in the east and more importantly they have the 4th best road record in the east. I've also heard Jim O'Brien a couple of times in the past week talk about the goal of getting the 4th seed and first round home court advantage.

    Looking at the east overall, I'm not ready to say that the Magic are a 55 win team. They've had a recent history of starting the season fast and then struggling. Magic are good, but I wouldn't be surprised if they fail to win 50 games.

    The Cavs will clearly start to win games when James gets back into the lineup.

    The Celtics I see winning close to 60 games., The Pistons will win around 55 games.

    Other than those 3 or 4 teams I see the pacers being better than any of the other teams. And if you look at the pacers next 14 games. If they can continue to play like they have the past two weeks, I can see the Pacers going 10-4 or maybe 11-3 - I really can.

    So the 4th seed is within reach. Sure they are a couple of injuries away from falling apart, and who knows if the Saturday night Tinsley incident will have any effect on the team - but right now the pacers look like the 4th best team in the east. 5th best at the worst.

  • #2
    Re: Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

    We've beaten a lot of good teams, and we've lost some against lesser teams. If we can continue to beat the good teams and win the games against the weaker teams, we can pull together a strong season.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

      If you take out the six-game losing streak, we're right there. I think this team really clicked after those losses. Now everyone's getting healthy and the chemistry is back on track. We should be getting Ike and David back soon enough for some low-post help too. That can't hurt us.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

        I think it unlikely the Pacers stay healthy over the next 62 games.
        And I won't be here to see the day
        It all dries up and blows away
        I'd hang around just to see
        But they never had much use for me
        In Levelland. (James McMurtry)

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

          Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
          In an effort to get the discussion back to basketball - Today I was looking at the eastern conference standings and noticed the Pacers have the 4th best record in the east and more importantly they have the 4th best road record in the east. I've also heard Jim O'Brien a couple of times in the past week talk about the goal of getting the 4th seed and first round home court advantage.

          Looking at the east overall, I'm not ready to say that the Magic are a 55 win team. They've had a recent history of starting the season fast and then struggling. Magic are good, but I wouldn't be surprised if they fail to win 50 games.

          The Cavs will clearly start to win games when James gets back into the lineup.

          The Celtics I see winning close to 60 games., The Pistons will win around 55 games.

          Other than those 3 or 4 teams I see the pacers being better than any of the other teams. And if you look at the pacers next 14 games. If they can continue to play like they have the past two weeks, I can see the Pacers going 10-4 or maybe 11-3 - I really can.

          So the 4th seed is within reach. Sure they are a couple of injuries away from falling apart, and who knows if the Saturday night Tinsley incident will have any effect on the team - but right now the pacers look like the 4th best team in the east. 5th best at the worst.
          I like the sentiment.

          But I'm not ready to say we can easily be better than Miami, Cleveland, Washington, Toronto, and Chicago.

          Some of those teams are sucking now, but now is the time to suck. Good teams make their run in the second half of the year.

          I will say this: We CAN be the fourth best team in the East. But everything has to go right. We have to stay focused, we have to continue to improve the motion offense, JO has to find a way to fit into the offense, JT has to keep his wits and sanity about him, injuries must be minimal.

          If we can do all that, then I'm a believer.

          "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

            Yes, but its 1, 2, 3 then 4 through 11.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

              On paper, we COULD be a 4th seed....but I think that there are too many "this and that" MUST happen throughout the entire course of the season ( like Tinsley, JONeal, Foster and Marquis remaining healthy; Granger, Dunleavy and Murphy finding consistency; everyone being on the same page when it comes to playing defense; etc. ) for us to realistically attain that goal.

              This team ( like any other team ) can be a well-run machine that can take us into the Playoffs....but I think that it isn't a well-built machine that is built to withstand the rigors of the season. Once a key "cog" in the machine fails ( most notably Tinsley getting injured for periods of time ), the whole machine struggles. We maybe good enough to make the Playoffs, but I am not optimistic about our chances of getting to ( much less keeping ) the 4th seed in the East.
              Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

                All of you are making really good points, but I think the larger issue is that at least we are talking about perhaps being the 4th seed/4th best team in the east - before the season most experts thought the Pacers would be the worst or second worst.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

                  I dont know that you can count the Magic out as easily. They do have a new coach and he is providing the same change that we have with Obie.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

                    Originally posted by Ragnar View Post
                    I dont know that you can count the Magic out as easily. They do have a new coach and he is providing the same change that we have with Obie.
                    Orlando, Boston, and Detroit are all far better teams than the Pacers (each by at least 5 wins).

                    Other than these three teams, the Pacers are very close to every other team in the East. That includes Cleveland with LeBron, Miami with Wade, and Washington with Gilbert.

                    You can talk all you want about everything having to go right, but you can say that much more so for many other teams in the East. Cleveland and Miami are LeBron and DWade injuries away from having top 5 picks.

                    The Pacers have already had key rotation players (JO, Ike, Marquis) miss multiple games due to injury. We've never seen this team at full strength, and the results so far have been better than most of us expected.

                    The only thing that could seriously derail us at this point would be a Tinsley injury, and this is mainly because he is the only player that we don't have an adequate back-up for.
                    "A man with no belly has no appetite for life."

                    - Salman Rushdie

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

                      Every other team is just as susceptible to the injury bug as are we, so I don't put that into the equation. Hell, we played great with our best player out (JO), how many teams can do that?

                      It's a growing together year for the team. I think if anything, we are built to withstand injuries and the long season. Ike is huge I think, which helps ease some of the JO issues we have had. Rush and Diener have to hit a shot or two at some point during the year. And, if we really are close to being contenders half way through the year, we can always pull a trade at the deadline.

                      We are the 4th best team and consistency will keep us there in the hunt. No reason we can't beat Detroit in a 7 game series either!!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

                        Originally posted by Ragnar View Post
                        I dont know that you can count the Magic out as easily. They do have a new coach and he is providing the same change that we have with Obie.
                        The magic definitely depend on DHoward though--which they are another team a la the Heat and Cleveland, who depend on one guy to do everything. It's tough to take teams like that seriously over the course of the year. But once the playoffs roll around and everyones healthy........

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

                          How much more screwed are the Magic is Howard, Turkeyglue, Lewis, and Nelson go down? What if they tire? Do they have the experience to play for a whole season consistently?

                          How much more screwed are the Cavs if they lose LeBron, Z, Gibson, or Gordon?

                          Don't count out the Wiz or even the Hawks. The Hawks are one vetran away from elite status.

                          How much more screwed are the Heat if Wade, Shaq, Zo, or Haslem go down? Do they have the depth?

                          Can the Bulls overcome the disunity? There is a problem with that club that is beyond or is connected to the Kobe rumor?

                          Are the Pistons a frontcourt injury away from 4th or 5th seed status?

                          Every team has what ifs. We have some as well. I really think this team is on the up. The big issue is finding someone to spell Tins. I do not think that we are doomed to lottery without him though.

                          As a gelling team we are the 4th best team in the East.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

                            Originally posted by intridcold View Post

                            Are the Pistons a frontcourt injury away from 4th or 5th seed status?
                            ....is there a team in the NBA that isn't a frontcourt injury away from dropping in the standings?

                            As frontcourt depth goes, I would think the Pistons are stronger than most. They've got guys not in the rotation that could easily step up if needed.
                            Last edited by Kstat; 12-10-2007, 01:44 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

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                            • #15
                              Re: Are the Pacers the 4th best team in the east

                              The key factor to whether we have a successful winning year is whether or not JO gets injured for the season.







                              "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

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