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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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December Picks Survey

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  • December Picks Survey

    This is just for fun. Fill out this brief December survey with the player or team you think most deserves the title. Base it on the performance of the players or teams so far this year. Some categories, like Comeback Player, are based on a players past years. For example, a player had 3 good years, then had some off years, and has come back strong again. Grant Hill is an example of this. Here is the format. YOU CAN ONLY PICK ONE PLAYER OR TEAM. I filled one in for you guys.

    PLAYERS

    MVP:
    Most Improved Player:
    6th Man of the Year:
    Comeback Player:
    Defensive Player of the Year:
    Rookie of the Year:
    Best Fantasy free agent pickup:
    Most disappointing Fantasy draft pick:
    Best off-season pickup:
    Best rebounder:
    Best dunker:
    Best passer:
    Best dribbler:
    Best shot blocker:
    Most intense player:
    Most athletic player:
    5 seconds left, down 2:
    5 seconds left, down 3:
    How is he still so good?:
    Should be traded:
    Most Overpaid Player: Troy Murphy
    Best PG:
    Best SG:
    Best SF:
    Best PF:
    Best C:
    Best International player:
    Most underrated player:
    Best duo:
    Keep an eye on...:


    TEAMS

    NBA Finals Champ:
    Best in the West:
    Best in the East:
    Best Offensive Team:
    Best Defensive Team:
    Best Fast Break Team:
    Most Improved Team:
    Worst off-season:
    Dirtiest team:
    Best Coach:
    Best Gm:
    Worst Coach:
    Worst GM:
    Could win it all in 5 years:
    "Think about it. At best, Ming develops into a bigger, more athletic Rik Smits." -Bill Simmons

  • #2
    Re: December Picks Survey

    PLAYERS

    MVP: LeBron
    Most Improved Player: Andrew Bynum
    6th Man of the Year: Manu
    Comeback Player: Grant Hill
    Defensive Player of the Year: Josh Smith
    Rookie of the Year: Durant
    Most disappointing Fantasy draft pick: Gilbert
    Best off-season pickup: KG
    Best rebounder: Dwight
    Best dunker: LBJ
    Best passer: Jason Kidd
    Best dribbler: AI
    Best shot blocker: Josh Smith
    Most intense player: KG
    Most athletic player: LBJ
    5 seconds left, down 2: Kobe
    5 seconds left, down 3: Ray Allen
    How is he still so good?: AI
    Should be traded: Eddy Curry
    Is getting paid too much: Troy Murphy
    Best PG: Chris Paul
    Best SG: Kobe
    Best SF: LeBron
    Best PF: Dirk still
    Best C: Dwight Howard
    Best International player: Dirk
    Most underrated player: Mike Dunleavy the kid is money
    Best duo: AI and Melo
    Keep an eye on...: Antoine Wright


    TEAMS

    NBA Finals Champ: Spurs
    Best in the West: Spurs
    Best in the East: Pistons
    Best Offensive Team: Nuggets
    Best Defensive Team: Celtics
    Best Fast Break Team: Suns
    Most Improved Team: Celtics
    Worst off-season: TWolves
    Dirtiest team: Spurs
    Best Coach: Pops
    Best Gm: Luckiest - Ainge
    Worst Coach: Isiah
    Worst GM: McHale. then, now, and always
    Could win it all in 5 years: Portland
    Last edited by RickSmitsFan; 12-23-2007, 06:29 AM.
    "Think about it. At best, Ming develops into a bigger, more athletic Rik Smits." -Bill Simmons

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: December Picks Survey

      PLAYERS

      MVP: Steve Nash
      Most Improved Player: Chris Kaman
      6th Man of the Year: Manu Ginobili
      Comeback Player: Jamaal Tinsley
      Defensive Player of the Year: D. Howard
      Rookie of the Year: Kevin Durant
      Best Fantasy free agent pickup: ?
      Most disappointing Fantasy draft pick: Gilbert Arenas
      Best off-season pickup: Kevin Garnett
      Best rebounder: Chris Kaman
      Best dunker: Dwight Howard
      Best passer: Steve Nash
      Best dribbler: Chris Paul
      Best shot blocker: Josh Smith
      Most intense player: ?
      Most athletic player: Lebron James
      5 seconds left, down 2: Kobe Bryant
      5 seconds left, down 3: Gilbert Arenas
      How is he still so good?: Jason Kidd
      Should be traded: Ben Wallace
      Most Overpaid Player: Troy Murphy
      Best PG: Steve Nash
      Best SG: Kobe Bryant
      Best SF: Lebron James
      Best PF: Tim Duncan
      Best C: Dwight Howard
      Best International player: Dirk Nowitzki
      Most underrated player: Jeff Foster
      Best duo: Parker - Duncan
      Keep an eye on...: Azubuike


      TEAMS

      NBA Finals Champ: Boston Celtics
      Best in the West: San Antonio Spurs
      Best in the East: Boston Celtics
      Best Offensive Team: Phoenix Suns
      Best Defensive Team: San Antonio Spurs
      Best Fast Break Team: Phoenix Suns
      Most Improved Team: Atlanta Hawks
      Worst off-season: Cleveland Cavaliers
      Dirtiest team: S.A. Spurs
      Best Coach: Popovich
      Best Gm: Ainge
      Worst Coach: Isiah Thomas
      Worst GM: Timberwolves
      Could win it all in 5 years: Portland

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: December Picks Survey

        MVP: Dwight Howard
        Most Improved Player: Azubuike
        6th Man of the Year: Manu in a landslide
        Comeback Player: Hill
        Defensive Player of the Year: Howard
        Rookie of the Year: to be different, Al Horford
        Best Fantasy free agent pickup: Jamario Moon, Sean Williams (Nets), Travis Outlaw
        Most disappointing Fantasy draft pick: Gilbert
        Best off-season pickup: that Garnett dude
        Best rebounder: Jeff Foster
        Best dunker: Josh Smith
        Best passer: Kidd
        Best dribbler: Tinsley
        Best shot blocker: Camby
        Most intense player: Garnett
        Most athletic player: LeBron
        5 seconds left, down 2: Kobe
        5 seconds left, down 3: Kobe
        How is he still so good?: Iverson, dude is tiny
        Should be traded: Isaiah Thomas
        Most Overpaid Player: Steve Francis
        Best PG: Kidd, Paul by the end of the year
        Best SG: Kobe
        Best SF: LeBron
        Best PF: Duncan
        Best C: Howard
        Best International player: Dirk
        Most underrated player: Michael Redd
        Best duo: Duncan/Poppovich, Jazz/Jerry Sloan, Williams/Boozer
        Keep an eye on...: Julian Wright


        TEAMS

        NBA Finals Champ: Spurs
        Best in the West: Spurs
        Best in the East: Celtics
        Best Offensive Team: Suns
        Best Defensive Team: Jazz
        Best Fast Break Team: Suns
        Most Improved Team: Pacers!
        Worst off-season: Heat
        Dirtiest team: Pistons
        Best Coach: Jerry Sloan
        Best Gm: Colangelo
        Worst Coach: Zeke
        Worst GM: Zeke
        Could win it all in 5 years: Anybody, look at the Celtics

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: December Picks Survey

          Oooh, fun stuff. Here I go...

          MVP: Lebron
          Most Improved Player: Andrew Bynum
          6th Man of the Year: Jason Eugene Terry
          Comeback Player: Grant Hill
          Defensive Player of the Year: Josh Smith
          Rookie of the Year: Eazy Yi
          Best Fantasy free agent pickup: Gilbert
          Most disappointing Fantasy draft pick: Again, Gilbert
          Best off-season pickup: Hmmm, maybe Kevin Garnett
          Best rebounder: Dwight the man child
          Best dunker: Dwight again
          Best passer: CP3
          Best dribbler: Mel Mel
          Best shot blocker: Josh Smith
          Most intense player: KG
          Most athletic player: Lebron
          5 seconds left, down 2: Kobe
          5 seconds left, down 3: Kobe
          How is he still so good?: Jason Kidd
          Should be traded: Ron Artest, for the sake of SacTown
          Most Overpaid Player: Troy Murphy (might throw RLewis in here)
          Best PG: Chris Paul
          Best SG: Kobe Bryant
          Best SF: Lebron James
          Best PF: Kevin Garnett
          Best C: Dwight Howard
          Best International player:
          Most underrated player: Hedo Turkoglu
          Best duo: AI/Melo (Like what Butler/Jamison are doing)
          Keep an eye on...: Kelenna


          TEAMS

          NBA Finals Champ: Spurs
          Best in the West: Spurs
          Best in the East: Celtics
          Best Offensive Team: Warriors
          Best Defensive Team: Spurs
          Best Fast Break Team: GS Warriors
          Most Improved Team: Boston/Indy-Depends on if you consider expectations.
          Worst off-season: Miami
          Dirtiest team: Spurs
          Best Coach: Jimmy O
          Best Gm: Ainge by default
          Worst Coach: ZEKE
          Worst GM: ZEKE
          Could win it all in 5 years: Portland
          A: "I've got to wait until it gets dark to finish filming. We have one scene shot at night."

          J: (Drunk) "Come film in my pants man, it's already dark there."

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: December Picks Survey

            PLAYERS

            MVP: Lebron
            Most Improved Player:MDJ
            6th Man of the Year: Manu
            Comeback Player:grant Hill
            Defensive Player of the Year: D Howard
            Rookie of the Yearurant
            Best Fantasy free agent pickup:?
            Most disappointing Fantasy draft pick:?
            Best off-season pickup:KG
            Best rebounder:Foster
            Best dunker Howard
            Best passer:KOBE
            Best dribbler:AI
            Best shot blocker: D. Howard
            Most intense player:KOBE
            Most athletic player:LBJ
            5 seconds left, down 2 Wade
            5 seconds left, down 3:Kobe
            How is he still so good?:G. Hill
            Should be traded:Troy Murphy
            Most Overpaid Player: Troy Murphy
            Best PG:Steve Nash
            Best SG: Kobe
            Best SF: LBJ
            Best PFirk
            Best C: Duncan
            Best International player: Dirk
            Most underrated player: MDJ
            Best duo: AI and Melo
            Keep an eye on...: Ben Wallace


            TEAMS

            NBA Finals Champ: Boston
            Best in the West:San Antonio
            Best in the East: boston
            Best Offensive Team: Phoenix
            Best Defensive Team: San Antonio
            Best Fast Break Team:Phoenix
            Most Improved Team:Pacers
            Worst off-season: Minny
            Dirtiest team: San Antonio
            Best Coach: Have to go with OBIE
            Best Gm: Boston's
            Worst Coach:Isiah
            Worst GM:?
            Could win it all in 5 years: Pacers

            yeah I picked the pacers for a lot, but It is what I have seen so far.
            Passion, Pride, Playoffs, Pacers

            Comment

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