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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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Conrad Brunner's blog

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  • Conrad Brunner's blog

    Nothing really newsy here, but some interesting tidbits

    http://my.nba.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5700018923



    You must be logged in to comment on a blog entry.
    Pacers give 'em something to talk about
    Aug 5, 2008
    So I'm standing nervously in the narthex of the church Saturday evening, a few minutes away from escorting my only daughter down the aisle, when the pastor decides this would be a good time to start a conversation about Larry Bird and his management of the Pacers.

    Larry needs to put his foot down and hold them accountable, he says. They need some better attitudes, he says.

    Understanding these are not particularly new topics for discussion in the community, I smiled and gently reminded him Bird has pulled off two major trades this summer bringing seven new players. And that Bird has made his intentions clear as they pertain to Shawne "Thin Ice" Williams and Jamaal Tinsley.

    And then I asked the pastor, with all due respect, if he could maybe focus on his job a little more and Larry's a little less for the next hour or so.

    Which he did. Amen.

    The point being, pretty much everywhere I go, they're talking about the Pacers. It isn't always positive but at least it isn't always negative. Truth be told, there's been very little to criticize this summer. Bird continues to get high marks from the national media experts for his offseason reshaping of the roster.

    In evaluating the offseason winners and losers, Chad Ford of ESPN.com had high praise for the Pacers.

    "For a team that was capped out and had no future, the Pacers found solid value for Jermaine O'Neal, fixed their problem at point guard with the addition of T.J. Ford and Jarrett Jack and added a couple of solid rookies in Brandon Rush and Roy Hibbert," Ford wrote. "Most importantly, Larry Bird and David Morway gave themselves considerable cap flexibility starting next summer to remake the team. If they can find a home for Jamaal Tinsley and shore up the power forward position, the Pacers could be a sleeper to sneak into the playoffs in the East next season."

    Much the same theme resonated on Hoopsworld.com in its in-depth analysis, which resulted in an overall grade of B-plus.

    "The Jermaine O'Neal trade was a good thing that yielded a lot of smaller pieces, all of which are great for the rebuilding process," said the site. "Keeping (Jerryd) Bayless instead of trading him and Ike Diogu to Portland for Rush and Jack arguably would've been a smart move, but both of the guys Indy got out of the deal will contribute in very positive ways for the Pacers. The bottom line is that they'll have a better record this year than they did last year, and it's even possible that they'll make the playoffs. That's an improvement worthy of high marks."

    Fast breaks: No interest in Tinsley buyout


    In an interview with Andrew Perna of RealGM.com, Real GM David Morway affirmed Bird's previous stance against buying out the contract of soon-to-be-former Pacers guard Jamaal Tinsley, saying it was "not even a consideration." Morway said the team is having conversations with a few teams and "our intent is to trade Jamaal and try to find the right situation for both him and the franchise."


    Hoopsworld reported the Pacers could be interested in Bucks forward Charlie Villanueva, with Troy Murphy as possible trade bait. Their salaries don't match up (Murphy is presently the Pacers' highest-paid player) so the Bucks would have to add more to the deal. The theory is Villanueva would be a more attractive option at power forward because of his athleticism and potential. Though not a 3-point threat, Villanueva averaged 14.9 points and 8.0 rebounds in 31 starts last season, compared to Murphy's averages of 12.7 points and 7.5 rebounds in 61 starts.


    Jeff Foster and Maceo Baston were joined by former Pacers forward Austin Croshere at a four-day seminar at Northwestern University aimed at preparing NBA players for the business realities of their lives after basketball. SI.com's Marty Burns described the program as "NBA meets MBA." It was very much a collegial atmosphere, with classes running all day. "I've been approached in the past about (business deals), but I never really had the time to look into them in depth," Foster told Burns. "This gives you at least a little background to help you understand, and maybe know what you might be getting into in the future." Another former Pacers player, Antonio Davis, helps run the program through the players' union.


    After playing a starring role with the Pacers' summer league team in Orlando, Earl Calloway has signed a two-year contract with Cibona Zagreb in Croatia, reports the Euroleague website. The former I.U. guard who starred with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants in the D-League last season, was named to the Pepsi Pro Summer League second team after averaging 14.2 points, 4.8 assists and 2.0 steals with the Pacers. He didn't perform as well for Utah in the Rocky Mountain Review, averatging 5.8 points and shooting .292.


    Former Pacers forward Josh Powell was waived last week by the Clippers despite playing solidly, averaging 19.2 minutes, 5.5 points and 5.2 rebounds in 64 games last season.

    __________________________________________________ ____________________

    Aug 5, 2008 12:33 PM EDT
    Report Abuse

    9 Replies

    Quit hatin on troy. I've seen dudes highlights in golden state, and the guy can play. maybe he just needs to get motivated.



    by araydavis1987 Aug 6, 2008 10:24 AM
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    I love the trade with the Bucks but I can not imagine why on earth the bucks would want to do it. Since the O'Neal trade Murphy is now the worst player per dollar on the team. If the Pacers could swing Murphy for Charlie V. and Mason it would have to rank as one of the best trades in Pacers history. While Charlie and Troy have similar numbers Charlie is much more athletic and actually plays defense. The best part about the deal would be that if it does not work out the Pacers free up another $10 million for next off season. My guess is that Charlie could be re-signed for something a little over the the mid level exception and the Pacers would still have plenty of money to get a starting power forward. With a big name free agent power forward and Charlie as a back up, power forward would become a position of strength as opposed to the weakest position on the team. I say make the trade but only if Mason is the otherr player involved. Expiring contracts are a wonderful thing. The Pacers should be willing to throw in a second round pick to sweeten the deal if necessary.



    by fullfigs Aug 6, 2008 12:17 AM
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    If we got the Bucks to do the trade omg .. I'll go crazy.



    by pacersforever1 Aug 5, 2008 9:11 PM
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    i think the pacers need to make a trade 2 or 3 for 1. maybe send diener, tinsley, and murphy away for like raef lafrentz of portlande. i know he's not good but at the end of the year we would have his salary and that would nock us down to 14 players on the roster. or at least send murphy and tinsley away together.



    by ethan5191 Aug 5, 2008 6:29 PM
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    1 Let me start by saying i love the moves the pacers made this offseason and add that we need to add a power forward asap i like me move with the bucks to bring in Charlie V but moving troy is not were you should start maybe moving jeff foster, shawne will, and MARK DAN i tnimk this move would be accepted by the bucks



    by 31millertime23 Aug 5, 2008 5:54 PM
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    Dear Conrad,

    We are Pacers fans in China. We noticed that Sam Perkins is now with the team USA in Shanghai. I have a suggestion for Mr. VP of Player Relatison.

    One of our Pacers fans attended the game yesterday in Shanghai. He was so excited to see Uncle Sam there, and he walked around the whole stadium, and finally come up with a close angle when Sam walked out from the sponsor suite. He shouted, but Sam just walked by and ignored him just like he ignored other fans. This is like a slam on the fan's face. This big fan has been following the Pacers in China for years, and this is his only chance to see a Pacer in person so far.

    Mr. VP of Player Relations, please do remember the Pacers have a good crowd of long time fans in China. Just don't let them down.

    Conrad, it will be great if you could pass this message to Uncle Sam. He is representing the Pacers in China. Many thanks in advance.

    www.ChinaPacers.com



    by hoililee Aug 5, 2008 5:09 PM
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    Wondering what kind of opinion you have for trade scenerios involving Jamaal Tinsley ..you would like to see Conrad?



    by pacersfanthicknthin Aug 5, 2008 4:45 PM
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    Indy60 -- We've been trying to reach Rasho, whose cell phone service is very spotty in Europe. He was with the Slovenian national team for the pre-Olympic qualifiers and has remained overseas. Once we track him down, we'll have some answers.



    by Bruno Aug 5, 2008 2:16 PM
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    I have noticed that there has been little to no mention of Rasho Nesterovic since the trade with Toronto. If I recall correctly, it was stated that he was in Europe and not available to attend an introductory press conference. I don't recall seeing any interviews with him since the trade and also noticed that he is not included in the NEW Pacers Players' Jerseys available on this website. Is this coincidence or is there a good chance that he will never actually wear a Pacers uniform? I would imagine that he and his expiring contract might be useful in a trade for the power forward that we need.



    by indy60 Aug 5, 2008 1:17 PM
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  • #2
    Re: Conrad Brunner's blog

    I'd be happy if we brought back Josh Powell
    "I'll always be a part of Donnie Walsh."
    -Ron Artest, Denver Post, 12.28.05

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Conrad Brunner's blog

      Originally posted by blanket View Post
      I'd be happy if we brought back Josh Powell
      I was thinking that as well when I saw he was released. I think the Pacers really liked what they saw from him during his short stint here.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Conrad Brunner's blog

        I'm more intrigued by another former Clipper - James Singleton - as a short-term solution, but I'd also be more than willing to give Maceo a shot at some heavy minutes. He's gotta be motivated at this point to prove himself in this league.

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