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The Rules of Pacers Digest

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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.

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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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Olympic Basketball Thread

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  • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

    [QUOTE=BorisD it just goes to show that the rest of the world isn't as uncompetitive as some would have us believe, and that the US will always need to keep improving their program to keep on top of the world.[/QUOTE]

    No the world sucks, Spain played a great game and still lost by double digits. US beat Greece by 23, Argentina by 20 they are top 5 teams in the world. Once close game does not change all that. I'm willing to bet there were less than 5 lead changes in such a close tight game. None in the second half.

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    • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

      Originally posted by ChicagoPacer View Post
      The weren't too far from flawless. They handled the pressure, made the US pay when the US gambled defensively, rebounded well, and shot well.

      We were outrebounded inside, which is why I'm looking forward to seeing the development of Oden. His game is tailor made for international ball. Great defender, mobile, quick, shoots a high% from mid range, rebounds well and a good free throw shooter. The weakness of this team was always in the post, but it's not the fault of the selection process. There just isn't a good selection of post players right now. I mean, recently you had Shaq, ten years ago you had Ewing/Robinson/Olajuwon. This is as weak as it's been since about 84, when you had the decline of Jabbar and Malone and the new guys hadn't come up yet. I think the deficiency at center is temporary.
      I think this team will be significantly better in 4 years with a little more size. Oden will be absolutely dominant defensively and allow the other guys to focus more on perimeter defense. Let's just say that Chris Bosh's defense appeared good for the PnR, but that's mainly because the team practiced defending it. Bosh is one reason Scola could manhandle 28 points and the Gasol brothers combined for more than 30. We were soft in the middle. Oden is quite mobile and will be able to do similar things on defense, but will do it much better and with much, much more force. The guy will have 4 years in the NBA and be an absolute monster by that time. Combine that with Durant and it's not even going to be this close. Durant cannot be defended even by NBA athletes and will score at will. He has much more length than any player on the current USA team. Oh, and Lebron will be in his prime better than ever. Team USA will be significantly better overall and it will not even be this close.

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      • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

        Originally posted by Kstat View Post
        Strategy it wasn't, but toy with them they did, and Spain remains obviously inferior.

        Spain can play a near-flawless offensive game and still lose to us by double figures. They can chew on that for the next 2 years when they're planning their next racially offensive theme.
        I just don't get the uber-jingoistic "we're number 1" attitude here. Spain played really well and we got our most competitive game of the Olympics. And they didn't have Calderon either. Spain played well and could have won. The better team won though because the U.S. played better...no surprise. But to just blindly dismiss the great effort by the other team is weird, arrogant and the reason why so many people dislike Americans worldwide. I don't get it.
        Last edited by rexnom; 08-24-2008, 08:55 AM.

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        • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

          In Argentina's defense they played without Ginobili who so far had a great tournament and with a one-leggeg Noccioni. But the real pb with this team was its very thin bench and the transition process they're going through with very little youth to carry the torch after vets like Herman or Pepe left.

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          • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

            Originally posted by BlueNGold View Post
            I think this team will be significantly better in 4 years with a little more size. Oden will be absolutely dominant defensively and allow the other guys to focus more on perimeter defense. Let's just say that Chris Bosh's defense appeared good for the PnR, but that's mainly because the team practiced defending it. Bosh is one reason Scola could manhandle 28 points and the Gasol brothers combined for more than 30. We were soft in the middle. Oden is quite mobile and will be able to do similar things on defense, but will do it much better and with much, much more force. The guy will have 4 years in the NBA and be an absolute monster by that time. Combine that with Durant and it's not even going to be this close. Durant cannot be defended even by NBA athletes and will score at will. He has much more length than any player on the current USA team. Oh, and Lebron will be in his prime better than ever. Team USA will be significantly better overall and it will not even be this close.
            Could be.

            Could be in 2012 Rubio won't be 17, Fernandez will be an NBA star, Calderon will actually play and the Gasol brothers will still be playing. And I have no idea who's on their junior team.

            That's OK - we've known for 6 years we can't dominate just by showing up. Of course USA basketball didn't figure that out until 2004.

            What I'm happiest about is how the team represented the US. Whatever medal we won, we didn't need a team that acted like a bunch of spoiled punks like the 2004 team did.
            The poster formerly known as Rimfire

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            • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

              Originally posted by DisplacedKnick View Post
              Whatever medal we won, we didn't need a team that acted like a bunch of spoiled punks like the 2008 Spanish team team did.
              Fixed.
              This space for rent.

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              • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                I wonder why the rest of the world thinks Americans are arrogant? Folks we handled the pressure well this Olympics, but that does not entitle us to berate and belittle other teams. Some of you sound like fanboys. We have to continue to work, because the level of competition is growing. Basketball is growing world wide, while they only sport that is growing is football.

                I believe the reason why we lost from 2000 till now is because the sense of entitlement. We are 2008 Olympic gold medalists, not 2012 or 2016. We have to work as hard if not harder to earn those accolades.

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                • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                  I like how Oden, who has yet to play a game in the NBA, is a shoe in to start for our next Olympic team. You guys drink a lot of kool-aid.

                  Anyway, congratulation to team USA for their hard earned gold.

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                  • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                    Originally posted by yahoo news
                    The Olympic Games were gold or bust for Team USA basketball, and they nearly blew it.
                    "Nearly blew it?" What nonsense. I still just don't get why every time the Us doesn't win by 40 it becomes about them and how they failed, rather than the fact that they had a pretty good opponent.

                    Hope Oden comes back strong. Rudy Fernandez showed he can ball against the NBA's best right now - Fernandez Aldridge Oden Roy godamn what a team.
                    2010 IKL Fantasy Basketball Champion Baltimore Bulldogs

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                    • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                      Originally posted by intridcold View Post
                      I wonder why the rest of the world thinks Americans are arrogant? Folks we handled the pressure well this Olympics, but that does not entitle us to berate and belittle other teams. Some of you sound like fanboys. We have to continue to work, because the level of competition is growing. Basketball is growing world wide, while they only sport that is growing is football.

                      I believe the reason why we lost from 2000 till now is because the sense of entitlement. We are 2008 Olympic gold medalists, not 2012 or 2016. We have to work as hard if not harder to earn those accolades.
                      I understand this sentiment. It is the majority view these days. Certainly we lost previously due to overconfidence and a sense of entitlement. It's now obvious that preparation, teamwork and focus are prerequisites for the US to win these days. However, those factors are not the only reason the US won and not at all why they blew teams out.

                      While many people focus on the now obvious fact that quickness and athleticism does not automatically lead to success in international competition, most people seem to dismiss it as a small factor or dismiss it altogether. Interestingly, opponents who experience the thrashing first-hand seem quick to acknowledge these as significant factors...even if it's not in vogue to do so.

                      IMO, team USA would lose big time if they did not have superior quickness and athleticism. As a team, they are not the best group of shooters, they do not have great size and they are not exceptionally better at moving the ball...yet most games were blow-outs and they never won by less than double digits. Now, why is that?

                      Some might say it's talent, baby. Well, IMO it is their overall quickness and athleticism...an advantage that is not going away anytime soon.
                      They compete because they prepared properly and finally put together a real team. But they win by large margins because they are quicker and more athletic.

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                      • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                        Originally posted by BlueNGold View Post
                        Well, IMO it is their overall quickness and athleticism...an advantage that is not going away anytime soon.
                        They compete because they prepared properly and finally put together a real team. But they win by large margins because they are quicker and more athletic.
                        Agreed. The fact that previous teams didn't bring it nullified the US' best advantage: quickness and athleticism around the perimeter. I expect the World Championships to be a bit closer because teams will work on adjusting to this kind of pressure, and ways to make it a halfcourt game, but this advantage isn't going away anytime soon. However, it does mean that every american team from now on has bring full-speed effort for the full 40 minutes because the Euros and Argentina do have some advantages in the half court.
                        2010 IKL Fantasy Basketball Champion Baltimore Bulldogs

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                        • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                          Fench team can somewhat match US in athleticism

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                          • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                            Go USA. Can I say we are number 1?
                            "They could turn out to be only innocent mathematicians, I suppose," muttered Woevre's section officer, de Decker.

                            "'Only.'" Woevre was amused. "Someday you'll explain to me how that's possible. Seeing that, on the face of it, all mathematics leads, doesn't it, sooner or later, to some kind of human suffering."

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                            • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                              Good to be back on top.

                              Congrats to the players on this team that represented this country brilliantly from beginning to end.

                              I am glad the final game was close and that team had to really earn the gold medal. It reminds us that the gold medal is something to truly cherish and it is something you must earn. I feared that another blowout in this gold medal game could lull use right back to sleep, but I don't think we have to worry about that now.

                              I'm really proud of this team. They earned it.


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                              • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                                Also Kobe showed everyone why he's so crucial to this team. Clutch. His D set the tone in group play and then he closed this game out.


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