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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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Mitchell Report

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  • Mitchell Report

    Okay...I have zero idea where this list actually originated and it came to me in an email from a friend of a friend of a friend.

    So take this all with a HUGE grain of salt.

    But all the rampant and uncomfirmed speculation needs to begin somewhere, right?


    Jose Guillen, Jay Gibbons, Juan Gonzalez, Clay Hensley, Jerry Hairston, Felix Heredia, Jr., Darren Holmes, Wally Joyner, Darryl Kile, Matt Lawton, Raul Mondesi, Mark McGwire, Guillermo Mota, Robert Machado, Damian Moss, Abraham Nunez, Trot Nixon, Jose Offerman, Andy Pettitte, Mark Prior, Neifi Perez, Rafael Palmiero, Albert Pujols, Brian Roberts, Juan Rincon, John Rocker, Pudge Rodriguez, Sammy Sosa, Scott Schoenweiis, David Segui, Alex Sanchez, Gary Sheffield, Miguel Tejada, Julian Tavarez, Fernando Tatis, Maurice Vaughn, Jason Varitek, Ismael Valdez, Matt Williams, Kerry Wood, Brady Anderson, Manny Alexander, Rick Ankiel, Jeff Bagwell, Barry Bonds, Aaron Boone, Rafaeil Bettancourt, Bret Boone, Milton Bradley, David Bell, Dante Bichette, Albert Belle, Paul Byrd, Wil Cordero, Ken Caminiti, Mike Cameron, Ramon Castro, Jose and Ozzie Canseco, Roger Clemens, Paxton Crawford, Wilson Delgado, Lenny Dykstra, Johnny Damon, Carl Everett, Kyle Farnsoworth, Ryan Franklin, Troy Glaus, Rich Garces, Jason Grimsley, Troy Glaus, Juan Gonzalez, Eric Gagne, Nomar Garciaparra, Jason Giambi, Jeremy Giambi
    Pujols is the only big surprise...and more so that it's pretty dammning if true rather than hard to believe.

    Johnny Damon too, mostly because you'd think after taking steroids you wouldn't still throw like a girl.

    Albert Belle, Milton Bradley, Carl Everett, Gary Sheffield, Jose Offerman and Julian Tavarez, however, not so shocking.
    Last edited by JayRedd; 12-13-2007, 01:27 PM.
    Read my Pacers blog:
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  • #2
    Re: Mitchell Report

    I think that this same list is posted at deadspin.com

    http://deadspin.com/sports/is-this-t...ned-333479.php

    One of the suspicions was that Mitchell (a Red Sox fan & advisor) would not bust any Red Sox players, but since captain Jason Varitek is on there, I guess that suspicion goes out the window.



    Clemens, Damon, and Petitte are the biggies with Pujols and Bagwell. Nobody else seems that surprising.
    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!).

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Mitchell Report

      Varitek and Damon really suprise me.

      Sheffield doesn't surprise me one single bit. Pujols doesn't surprise me that much either because he bursted on the scene hitting 30 some homeruns his rookie year. That just doesn't happen.

      My question, does this solitify A-Rod being the best ever? A-Rod is killing everyones numbers and you don't see his name anywhere near steroids. I think Jose mentioned it one time, then quickly retracted it.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Mitchell Report

        Pujols is definetely the biggest deal right now. Hes the best player on the list and some would argue the best player in baseball.


        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Mitchell Report

          http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/news/mitchell/index.jsp

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Mitchell Report

            Well...looks like half that original list is my first post was BS. Or at least isn't in the initial report -- though ESPN and others are speculating more names will surface.

            But as a Red Sox fan, I'm glad to see that Mo Vaughn is the only big name player we had there, and that's not particularly surprising. Happy to see no Nomar, Tek or Trot.

            And no, I don't count Rogah as a Red Sox. I am pretty glad to see his whole miserable life get tarnished though. Sweet records, buddy. Real Crackerjack job you did of ruining your entire legacy.
            Read my Pacers blog:
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            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Mitchell Report

              so Damon,Varitek, at. al. are not on there as the initial false report said.
              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!).

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Mitchell Report

                Originally posted by pacertom View Post
                so Damon,Varitek, at. al. are not on there as the initial false report said.
                I'm not seeing Pujols either?

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Mitchell Report

                  Full Mitchell report PDF:

                  http://assets.espn.go.com/media/pdf/...ell_report.pdf

                  Glad to see Clemens getting it. I've always hated him.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Mitchell Report

                    Originally posted by pacertom View Post
                    so Damon,Varitek, at. al. are not on there as the initial false report said.
                    Nope.

                    Originally posted by Adam1987 View Post
                    I'm not seeing Pujols either?
                    Nope.
                    Read my Pacers blog:
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                    Follow my twitter:

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                    • #11
                      Re: Mitchell Report

                      Here's the complete, legit list:


                      NEW NAMES

                      Chad Allen
                      Mike Bell
                      Gary Bennett
                      Larry Bigbie
                      Kevin Brown
                      Alex Cabrera
                      Mark Carreon
                      Jason Christiansen
                      Howie Clark
                      Roger Clemens
                      Jack Cust
                      Brendan Donnelly
                      Chris Donnels
                      Matt Franco
                      Eric Gagne
                      Matt Herges
                      Phil Hiatt
                      Glenallen Hill
                      Todd Hundley
                      Mike Judd
                      David Justice
                      Chuck Knoblauch
                      Tim Laker
                      Mike Lansing
                      Paul Lo Duca
                      Nook Logan
                      Josias Manzanillo
                      Cody McKay
                      Kent Mercker
                      Bart Miadich
                      Hal Morris
                      Daniel Naulty
                      Denny Neagle
                      Jim Parque
                      Andy Pettitte
                      Adam Piatt
                      Todd Pratt
                      Stephen Randolph
                      Adam Riggs
                      Armando Rios
                      Brian Roberts
                      F.P. Santangelo
                      Mike Stanton
                      Ricky Stone
                      Miguel Tejada
                      Ismael Valdez
                      Mo Vaughn
                      Ron Villone
                      Fernando Vina
                      Rondell White
                      Jeff Williams
                      Todd Williams
                      Steve Woodard
                      Kevin Young
                      Gregg Zaun

                      PREVIOUSLY LINKED

                      Manny Alexander
                      Rick Ankiel
                      David Bell
                      Marvin Benard
                      Barry Bonds
                      Ricky Bones
                      Paul Byrd
                      Jose Canseco
                      Paxton Crawford
                      Lenny Dykstra
                      Bobby Estalella
                      Ryan Franklin
                      Jason Giambi
                      Jeremy Giambi
                      Jay Gibbons
                      Troy Glaus
                      Juan Gonzalez
                      Jason Grimsley
                      Jose Guillen
                      Jerry Hairston Jr.
                      Darren Holmes
                      Ryan Jorgensen
                      Gary Matthews Jr.
                      Rafael Palmeiro
                      John Rocker
                      Benito Santiago
                      Scott Schoeneweis
                      David Segui
                      Gary Sheffield
                      Randy Velarde
                      Matt Williams
                      The Miller Time Podcast on 8 Points, 9 Seconds:
                      http://www.eightpointsnineseconds.com/tag/miller-time-podcast/
                      RSS Feed
                      Subscribe via iTunes

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Mitchell Report

                        Originally posted by FlavaDave View Post
                        Ismael Valdez
                        This guy may have the best name in recorded human history.

                        Say what you want about his character...but he earned that distinction well before he ever started using performance-enhancing substances.
                        Read my Pacers blog:
                        8points9seconds.com

                        Follow my twitter:

                        @8pts9secs

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Mitchell Report

                          It will be interesting to see if Clemens gets the full "Barry Bonds treatment".

                          I never bought into the race angle, but this will be a test, to see if the "good old Texas white boy" is viewed like the surly and unlikeable Bonds, for the same offenses.
                          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!).

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Mitchell Report

                            Originally posted by pacertom View Post
                            It will be interesting to see if Clemens gets the full "Barry Bonds treatment".

                            I never bought into the race angle, but this will be a test, to see if the "good old Texas white boy" is viewed like the surly and unlikeable Bonds, for the same offenses.


                            I always have because I've always suspected him of cheating.

                            But to be fair, Bonds did many things to get the press pissed at him, while Clemens has been very media savy.

                            But I've always hated Clemens as much as Bonds, and I always assumed he was a steroid user.
                            The Miller Time Podcast on 8 Points, 9 Seconds:
                            http://www.eightpointsnineseconds.com/tag/miller-time-podcast/
                            RSS Feed
                            Subscribe via iTunes

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                            • #15
                              Re: Mitchell Report

                              The front cover of the NY Daily News had a photo of him and Andy with "CHEATERS" as the headline.

                              NY Post had him listed first in a group of names with a big syringe/baseball graphic.

                              He's getting it pretty bad here.
                              Read my Pacers blog:
                              8points9seconds.com

                              Follow my twitter:

                              @8pts9secs

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