Announcement

Collapse

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.
See more
See less

Well... Not impressed.. Random thoughts

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    Re: Well... Not impressed.. Random thoughts

    Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
    By league rule (or better known as the Ted Stepian rule) a team cannot trade first round draft pics in consecutive years. So if the Cavs offered us James, if the Magic offered us Howard or if the Lakers offered us Bynum and all they wanted in return was our first round draft pic, we couldn't do it.

    Ted Stepian was the Cavs owner during the early 80's and he traded first round draft picks like they were baseball cards
    Oh yeah I forgot about that rule. Well I hope there's a good player out there when we're on the clock 6 months from now!

    Comment


    • #17
      Re: Well... Not impressed.. Random thoughts

      Originally posted by CableKC View Post
      I haven't seen any games this season....

      I've seen enough of this team and the way that this offense has to run to know that with the given lineup that we have.....

      Huh??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Comment


      • #18
        Re: Well... Not impressed.. Random thoughts

        Originally posted by mb221 View Post
        Huh??????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
        Sorry...poor choice of words.

        Although I have not seen that many games ( mainly cuz I am not in Indy ) on TV, I have read enough and listened to enough of the games on NBA.COM to know that there is very little chance that this team will improve this season. I think that what YOU guys see from the Pacers on TV and what I hear on NBA.com is what we should continue to expect for the rest of the season.

        Short Version:

        I've mentioned this before the start of the regular season, there are too many "This and That MUST happen" in order for this team to be successful. I have the upmost confidence that the system that JO'B put in place can make us a competitive team in the NBA....I just have little to no confidence that we have the right players to implement this system.

        Long Version:

        I am of the opinion that this offense can run very efficiently and effectively if ALL of the following are in sync:

        1 ) We have a Floor General running the offense the way that it should be run
        2 ) Everyone on the floor can efficiently score when they have the ball
        3 ) There is a lot of ball movement among the Players

        I am sure that there are more...but IMHO.....the above factors are one of the primary keys to making JO'Bs offensive system work. If one of the above factors are not in sync, because this team is poorly built to "weather the storm" when any potential "roadbump" comes our way, the whole system falters.

        The main problem that this team has is that we don't have a durable lineup. Key players that make this offense and defense work ( like Foster, JONeal, Tinsley, Marquis and Harrison ) have been injured at times ( or is continuing to nurse injuries that is affecting their game ) throughout the first couple of months. What is the end-result? On the offensive end...we are forced to depend on Dunleavy and Granger to carry the offensive load...which does happen from time to time......but doesn't happen as often. Other times, we are forced to give way more minutes to Murphy over Foster cuz Foster ( or even Harrison ) can't play that many minutes. What is the indirect result of Murphy playing more minutes the Foster? JONeal is forced to cover up the defensive liabilities that Murphy. When Tinsley is injured...we are forced to play Owens, Marquis or Deiner at the point....all players that can adequatly do the job...but clearly aren't up to doing so on a continual basis. Do you see a pattern here? When we have players that continue show a history of nursing injuries or are forced to miss games every now and then, it becomes less of an excuse and more of a key weakness in the way this team is built.

        By the end of the 1st 6 game losing streak....I agreed that the nay-sayers should practice patience....simply put, we weren't heathly enough. But I am coming around to the belief that JO'Bs system could work IF everyone is healthy, IF Granger and Dunleavy showed up on the offensive end on a regular basis and IF JONeal could effectively defend and EFFICIENTLY contribute on the offensive end on a regular basis.

        I know that many of you will disagree......but given the inability for this lineup to stay healthy, Dunleavy and Granger's inexplicable disappearance from the offensive end in games at times and JONeal's very "un-JONeal" like performance so far ( likely due to his ongoing recovery from surgery )....I just don't see the point of practicing "patience" any longer.

        The only thing that I think that may save us is if Granger and Dunleavy figure out a way to consistently contribute on the offensive end. It doesn't mean that they aren't trying.....it's just that there is something that is not clicking with them that I hope that they can figure out.

        Honestly, do you think that this team will stay healthy enough ( even for a small stretch ) to make JO'Bs offensive and defensive system work on a regular basis?

        Do you think that JONeal is all of a sudden going to "regain his hops"?

        As I mentioned before....I don't have to wait til March to figure out that neither of the above is likely to "all of sudden" go away and we will have "figured it out".
        Last edited by CableKC; 01-07-2008, 03:54 PM.
        Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

        Comment


        • #19
          Re: Well... Not impressed.. Random thoughts

          Great post, Cable. I can subscribe to what you are saying. This team is just poorly constructed as it is and the injuries are not an incidental thing with this team, but absolutely structural. They occur and affect the team way too often and too much.

          Regards,

          Mourning
          2012 PD ABA Fantasy Keeper League Champion, sports.ws

          2011 PD ABA Fantasy Keeper League Champion, sports.ws

          2006 PD ABA Fantasy League runner up, sports.ws

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: Well... Not impressed.. Random thoughts

            Originally posted by Mourning View Post
            Great post, Cable. I can subscribe to what you are saying. This team is just poorly constructed as it is and the injuries are not an incidental thing with this team, but absolutely structural. They occur and affect the team way too often and too much.

            Regards,

            Mourning
            I just hope that us PD forum members aren't the only ones ( yes, I'm talking about TPTB ) that recognizes that there are some flaws in the way this team is built before the trade deadline...or at the very latest...sometime during the offseason.

            Unfortunately, given the outstanding moves that we have made over the last season....I have no re-assurances that TPTB won't continue to ride the JONeal bandwagon for another season...or worse.....trade Granger, Ike or Shawne before overvaluing JONeal ( yet again ).
            Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

            Comment


            • #21
              Re: Well... Not impressed.. Random thoughts

              I am in utter shock. I agree with nearly everything in this thread. Sanity reigns on PD!

              BTW, where are the sunshiners?

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: Well... Not impressed.. Random thoughts

                Originally posted by BlueNGold View Post
                I am in utter shock. I agree with nearly everything in this thread. Sanity reigns on PD!

                BTW, where are the sunshiners?
                Quietly questioning ourselves and finding it hard to refute Bball's post, as we often use to do.
                ...Still "flying casual"
                @roaminggnome74

                Comment


                • #23
                  Re: Well... Not impressed.. Random thoughts

                  Originally posted by Roaming Gnome View Post
                  Quietly questioning ourselves and finding it hard to refute Bball's post, as we often use to do.
                  Don't feel bad. You guys are a *vital* lifeline to the franchise and whether we will admit it or not, us NN's envy your optimism.

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Re: Well... Not impressed.. Random thoughts

                    Bball isn't impressed? Shocking!



                    I haven't been able to see hardly any games this year. Kind of stinks. That said, the team's record is much better than most everyone seemed to expect. So we must be doing some stuff right.
                    You, Never? Did the Kenosha Kid?

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: Well... Not impressed.. Random thoughts

                      Originally posted by CableKC View Post
                      Unfortunately, given the outstanding moves that we have made over the last season....I have no re-assurances that TPTB won't continue to ride the JONeal bandwagon for another season...or worse.....trade Granger, Ike or Shawne before overvaluing JONeal ( yet again ).
                      That is EXACTLY what I am fearfull off aswell and I don't understand why there's still so many amongst us who would either prefer that path or don't see the inevitable coming (the franchise will have to choose between JO and the younger guys in the end).

                      Regards,

                      Mourning
                      2012 PD ABA Fantasy Keeper League Champion, sports.ws

                      2011 PD ABA Fantasy Keeper League Champion, sports.ws

                      2006 PD ABA Fantasy League runner up, sports.ws

                      Comment

                      Working...
                      X