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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"

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"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

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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:

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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:

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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

    One of the brightest stars of the team USA LeBron Jame after victorious game against Greece (92:69) opened the secret of the win: "We play every game as the last one".

    L. James get 17 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists. "We play better each game. We play the whole strength with every oponent and if we have chance to improve then we have to use it", said the player.

    Team USA get many good words from basketball specialists. It doesn't seem that this years team have weak points and demonstrates the highest level basketball.

    Team USA won all 3 olympic games matches. "We know what the victory means and understood that it could be accomplished only with a good defence. The communication is a very important thing, so we speak (communicate) a lot when we are defending.",- L. James didn't stop to wonder journalists.

    --->>>
    Just my translation.
    Last edited by DeS; 08-14-2008, 06:53 PM.
    I'm really sorry because of my english (which is my 3-4 language) and I really appreciate Your patience. I hope this board will make me better

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    • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

      Originally posted by Indy View Post
      Why would you possibly want to add more fuel to this US team's fire? Stupid, stupid, stupid Jose.

      Isn't it clear by now that they are on a mission to reclaim the gold?

      Oh well, Calderon clearly doesn't think much before he acts.
      It would be fine considering the talent they have, theyll be able to field a team with 7 NBA players in a couple fo years, but they barely won against China and Germany kept close late, two teams that have no bussines hanging around at the end of the game, this might backfire worse than for France swimming relay team

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      • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

        Spain is extremely talented, but I don't get why you would want to rile up this team even more.


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        • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

          Meanwhile the Chinese came up with a nickname for Carlos Boozer

          http://nba.fanhouse.com/2008/08/10/m...yal-skull-dude

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          • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

            What a weird quote by Scola.

            "They wanna to run, they gonna shoot, they don't want to play really, really solid defense. You got people who try to play this way. I think it's impossible to beat the NBA players that way because it's the way they're really the best. When you play these European teams it's different. They play much more like a block; it's really more difficult to get points, it's really difficult to get 100 points in a game. It's hard to run, they play extremely physical. So I think it's going to be a little bit different. Maybe (the U.S. will) dominate because they can do it if they're open. But maybe they don't, like it's been happening at the last championships."
            Is he saying the USA team doesn't want to play defense? Or their opponents?
            This space for rent.

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            • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

              I think he's saying USA doesn't want to play defense and they just want to run. Then he says, it's hard to play like that in the NBA because many teams and players thrive running the floor and getting easy baskets. Then he says, in Europe it's different because they play physical defense so it's hard to get 100 points a game. I think his "block" means like a wall, maybe referring to the zone defense. Then he says, maybe US will win because they can get open looks if they run or maybe they won't win, referring to what happened in the past championships.

              Just my opinion, hopefully that cleared it up.
              2015, 2016, 2019 IKL Fantasy Basketball Champions - DC Dreamers

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              • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                Originally posted by tbabyy924 View Post
                I think he's saying USA doesn't want to play defense and they just want to run. Then he says, it's hard to play like that in the NBA because many teams and players thrive running the floor and getting easy baskets. Then he says, in Europe it's different because they play physical defense so it's hard to get 100 points a game. I think his "block" means like a wall, maybe referring to the zone defense. Then he says, maybe US will win because they can get open looks if they run or maybe they won't win, referring to what happened in the past championships.

                Just my opinion, hopefully that cleared it up.
                Originally posted by Anthem View Post
                What a weird quote by Scola.



                Is he saying the USA team doesn't want to play defense? Or their opponents?
                It sounds to me like something similar to what T-bird was saying in his post. He's questioning their patience defensively. To draw a comparison from the '90's, I'd use the Sonics (under Karl) and the Pacers (under Brown).

                The Sonics were a 60-win team that applied withering pressure, however, they had a tendency get a little sloppy when teams were able to deal with their first wave. It was a strategy that, in concert with their offensive skills, was often more than enough to beat their opponents into submission. However, come playoff time, when the talent disparity wasn't as great and the intensity higher, opponents were able to withstand the initial onslaught and grind wins out.

                The Pacers were low on flash, but they basically ground teams down. During their peak periods, they would go on 14-1 runs that would take like 8 minutes. They didn't get a lot of steal or all that many blocks, but teams would look up at the shotclock ticking under 5 seconds, and the ball would be 30 feet from the basket. The Pistons have probably been better at this over the last few years (though they had an added pressure dimension), and the 2004 Pacers were good at this (with Artest).

                Basically, Scola is saying that if you're patient enough with the US team, they'll get tired of waiting, make a mistake, and you can get easy baskets. I'm inferring that he also extrapolates that to the US offense, in that if you can keep them from getting early, easy baskets, you'll be able to force them into bad shots.

                However, it remains to be seen whether anybody can actually be patient enough to deal with the team. I'm reminded of Bob Knight's comments in 1987 after IU beat UNLV 97-93. Everybody figured IU would win a low-scoring game, but a high scoring game would be to the advantage of Tark's Rebels.

                It was the first time two players ever combined to score 70 against a Knight team. It was just the second time in 16 years a team reached as high as 93 against a Knight defense (Iowa's 101-point total earlier this year).

                Indiana's answer was offense. "We didn't think it could be a game where we could play with all kinds of patience and a lot of passing and dribbling, because we thought their defensive pressure was too good," Knight said.

                "We thought if we tried to play a game with 60, they might score 85."
                It all depends on the start. Using an analogy from another sport, how often have we seen opposing coaches abandon a conservative game plan early against the Colts over the past few years? So often, even the spectre of the Manning-led offense would cause the other team to take foolish gambles, playing into the Colts hands.

                Top teams, with strong coaching and equal or better talent, like the Patriots () didn't have this problem, but we've seen decent-to-good teams like Jacksonville, Tennessee, Pittsburgh, and Chicago on occasion snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The question is whether teams like Spain are more like the former, or the latter.

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                • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                  Originally posted by tbabyy924 View Post
                  I think he's saying USA doesn't want to play defense and they just want to run. Then he says, it's hard to play like that in the NBA because many teams and players thrive running the floor and getting easy baskets. Then he says, in Europe it's different because they play physical defense so it's hard to get 100 points a game. I think his "block" means like a wall, maybe referring to the zone defense. Then he says, maybe US will win because they can get open looks if they run or maybe they won't win, referring to what happened in the past championships.

                  Just my opinion, hopefully that cleared it up.
                  That's sure how it sounds. But surely he's not saying that because it's completely assinine.

                  I think the quote got mangled and taken out of context. I think the question was about how to beat the USA team. People lose to the US because "They wanna to run, they gonna shoot, they don't want to play really, really solid defense. You got people who try to play this way. I think it's impossible to beat the NBA players that way because it's the way they're really the best.[/quote]

                  I dunno. Seems weird.
                  This space for rent.

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                  • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                    I think it sounds like he is saying some international teams don't want to play the defense required to beat Team USA? And it's just poorly translated.


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                    • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                      Originally posted by Chewy View Post
                      Most likely, they haven't looked impressive in Olympics so far.
                      Spain's played like crap, and the most underachieving so far of all their players has been Jose Calderon. Could it be an eyesight problem, either from making stupid faces to the cameras or from the hypocrite's beam stuck in it? (After all, this is the guy who spent a year playing the saint and hanging TJ Ford out to dry in the media at every opportunity - nice to see him look like a complete tool in public.) Is Jose showing the world that Toronto kept the wrong point guard? He seems to be going out of his way to do so.

                      Meh, for that matter the USA hasn't been overwhelming, either. Kobe looks like he's on the verge of taking a game and losing it for them single-handedly, and Carmelo isn't playing well enough to justify his presence on a team full of wing scorers. (Not when there are so many prison leagues who are clamouring for his services, anyway.) Teams who slow the pace down are keeping the scores within a respectable margin, and if one of the better teams can realize how stupid Kobe is on the defensive end and be aware of their pressure releases to beat the Krzyzewski overplay doctrine then the USA could very conceivably be beaten.

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                      • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                        No doubt the Americans are impatient on offense. How many times do I have to see Paul, LeBron, and Wade give up position to risk a steal for a dunk. And when they go up against a team that can take care of the ball, hit open jumpers, and grab offensive rebounds without giving the fast break to us, they will have to adjust. As of now they really haven't needed to do that. But that does not mean they can't when it really matters.

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                        • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                          I'm not really that worried about USA considering the fact that they just beat Greece by more than twenty points in spite of those flaws.

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                          • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                            Originally posted by Hicks View Post
                            I'm not really that worried about USA considering the fact that they just beat Greece by more than twenty points in spite of those flaws.
                            Yes, and that was a good effort against a good team, although for the life of me I'm still trying to figure out what's been with Papaloukas the past year. Olympiakos may struggle a little if he doesn't round out into top form, soon. Greece still is one of those teams that could catch the US at the right team and drop them, but that was a good performance by the American team.

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                            • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                              Originally posted by BorisD View Post
                              Meh, for that matter the USA hasn't been overwhelming, either. Kobe looks like he's on the verge of taking a game and losing it for them single-handedly, and Carmelo isn't playing well enough to justify his presence on a team full of wing scorers. (Not when there are so many prison leagues who are clamouring for his services, anyway.) Teams who slow the pace down are keeping the scores within a respectable margin, and if one of the better teams can realize how stupid Kobe is on the defensive end and be aware of their pressure releases to beat the Krzyzewski overplay doctrine then the USA could very conceivably be beaten.


                              Did you even watch the Greece game? How can you say that wasn't impressive? Maybe the US only won by 23, but it was obvious who was in complete control of that game from the 2nd quarter on. The defense in the first half was some of the best defense I've ever seen. The players weren't gambling. They stayed in front of their man and Greece couldnt get into their sets.

                              I will agree with you that the U.S. could be beat on any given day. We've seen that in the past couple international tournaments. If they keep playing like they did against Greece though, no one is beating them.

                              Comment


                              • Re: Olympic Basketball Thread

                                I think the game against Greece was pretty much flawless for USA, they played to their strenghts, didn't gamble as much, noone was hogging the ball, used their athleticism, hit the outside shots, i don't know what more would you expect if they played any better theyd be at an original dream team level, and i think they might be pretty close, it's just that basketball gotten better over last decade in the rest of the world, they won't be winning by 60 points like in 92

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