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

Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah

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

  • Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah


    Not much playing time for D. Jones

    Posted by Mike Wells



    THE `HOUSE - There was plenty of outrage with comments on the bottom of my story, through email and on the previous blog about Pacers owner Herb Simon saying Larry Bird and Jim O'Brien will return next season.

    I can't say I'm really shocked that Simon has decided to stick with them.

    Bird told his boss that it would take time to rebuild things. Bird also wouldn't have given O'Brien a contract extension (that's still a head scratcher), which is fully guaranteed next season, back in September if he didn't want him to take part in the process.

    It'll be interesting to see what happens if the Pacers get off to a slow start next season, though.

    *******************

    Dahntay Jones might want to spend a lot of time working on his 3-point shot this summer because O'Brien gave the indication that he plans to continue using players that can space the court.

    That's not Jones' game. That's not why the Pacers gave him a four-year contract with a player option on the fourth year last summer.

    Jones is only 4-of-32 from long distance this season.

    "Let me answer it this way, I like to space the court," O'Brien said. "I like to space the court. I think if we were to get a point guard that can really space the court, shoot the 3, I think you can get away with having a wing that doesn't space the court."

    Jones hadn't played in four of the previous seven games prior to Saturday.

    "It's definitely been challenging a little, but I'm always going to play when called upon," Jones said. "I've had to play a different range of positions offensively and defensively and I'm just trying to contribute where I can."

    twitter.com/wells222
    http://blogs.indystar.com/pacersinsi...ch_playin.html

    It's time to hire a real basketball person to directly interface with Simon and put an end to this ****.
    Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.

    ------

    "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork."

    -John Wooden

  • #2
    Re: Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah

    And his best 3pt shooting pg can't start................ just more of Flim talking out of the side of his head.....
    I'm not perfect and neither are you.

    Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the esteem of Elohim,
    Ephisians 4: 32 And be kind towards one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as Elohim also forgave you in Messiah.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah

      If the Pacers get off to a slow start? What the **** are they defining as a slow start?

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah

        Originally posted by Bball View Post
        It's time to hire a real basketball person to directly interface with Simon and put an end to this ****.
        You were the one that complained the loudest when Walsh was here that the Pacers didn't have a plan. Now they have a plan and their sticking to it and you don't like it.

        Simon is a smart man, he has good basketball people and he knows it. I think people on here are way to critical.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah

          In the last few days, each time I read a quote from JOB I have to check to make sure that the post isn't some kind of prank. I don't really care who coaches next season since I think it's a lost season anyway, but something is clearly up with JOB. He's basically become a parody of himself, as if—after realizing that his hallowed 'plan' isn't working and will likely never work with this particular roster—he can do nothing but reduce himself to a cartoon, defensively repeating the same simple-minded platitudes over and over. Space the court, space the court.
          You, Never? Did the Kenosha Kid?

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah

            Originally posted by Will Galen View Post

            Simon is a smart man, he has good basketball people and he knows it. I think people on here are way to critical.

            I wouldn't disagree Simon is a smart man, but he seems to know little about BB. He's had the view to let others, Walsh now Bird, run the show and stay in the background as an invisible hands off owner. How's that worked the last 6 years? Obviously not well. He's the one who came out and publicly stated he was was going to get more involved. What did that mean? Letting Bird allow Jimmy to use a system that is not conducive to the players. By doing so Simon allowed Bird and Jimmy to not let the Pacers, his franchise, to not be the best team they could be, not developing the youth for the future, and not making the playoffs this year. Now just how smart was that??

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah

              Originally posted by SoupisGood
              defensively repeating the same simple-minded platitudes over and over. Space the court, space the court.
              It is true that O'Brien has ceased to sound credible, but can you go a little deeper with this, Soup? Or BBall?

              There is nothing necessarily simple-minded about spacing the court. That is a sound basketball principle.




              .
              And I won't be here to see the day
              It all dries up and blows away
              I'd hang around just to see
              But they never had much use for me
              In Levelland. (James McMurtry)

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah

                Originally posted by Putnam View Post
                It is true that O'Brien has ceased to sound credible, but can you go a little deeper with this, Soup? Or BBall?

                There is nothing necessarily simple-minded about spacing the court. That is a sound basketball principle.
                .

                its one thing to space the court - its another to have 5 guys outside of the 3 pt line...from JOB's comments - that is his dream -to put on 5 players to the floor that can stay outside the 3pt line to jack up 3 pointers...

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah



                  As I've said before, just glad I've got Purdue to watch. Might start watching Butler, too, though I bet those Horizon games get pretty boring.

                  And in Bball's defense, I think it was implicit that if said plan was making the team worse every year, then it should be scrapped in favor of a new one.
                  Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah

                    Originally posted by Putnam View Post
                    It is true that O'Brien has ceased to sound credible, but can you go a little deeper with this, Soup? Or BBall?

                    There is nothing necessarily simple-minded about spacing the court. That is a sound basketball principle.




                    .

                    Spacing the court seems to be the "primary single focus" that Jimmy is concerned about. I don't hear him constantly alluding to playing "D" like he does about spacing the court. Maybe concentrating less on spacing the court and more on other attributes of the game the Pacers would be in the playoffs. Wasn't that the goal of ownership and the franchise FO this year? Seems like Jimmy either didn't get the memo or he just refused understand the goal.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah

                      Not everyone on ANY roster anywhere is capable of hitting threes, not even All-Star teams. Most coaches don't obsess over it to the level that our coach does, where playing time is apparently based more on the ability to take and make threes and the volume of threes that a player is willing to take than what even some of the biggest detractors of our coach probably had believed until the latest flurry of articles has shown that pattern in his quotes.

                      Ball movement and player movement without the ball are keys to sound fundamental basketball play and are instrumental in truly spacing the court and keeping it spaced whether shots are falling or not, thereby increasing the likelihood that quality looks are consistently available.

                      Once again, Jimmy "3'Balls" (surely there is a surgical procedure to correct that) is totally contradicting what we were told during last off season, this time regarding the fact that Dahntay was brought in for his defensive intensity because 3'Balls is defensively oriented as a coach somehow . Now that we, and 3'Balls, have seen that Dahntay can't shoot the 3, 3'Balls hasn't been playing him due to his not being able to "space the court".

                      This is just another example of how out of touch with reality 3'Balls actually is, IMO. During our early season flourish, Dahntay showed that he can slash (though he makes poor decisions frequently when he does so which presents other problems, but those are somewhat correctable) and at least defend at a fairly high level (though his over-aggressiveness leads to unnecessary touch fouls at times). Both of those attributes are important, especially the ability to cause defenses to collapse due to smart partaking of the "low hanging fruit of the Tree of Penetration" (yes, not "spacing the court" actually increases the likelihood of the actual perimeter shooters getting higher quality looks in the absence of a post game that 3'Balls generally shuns, thereby actually "spacing the court" after all). 3'Balls apparently doesn't care about those relative strengths and sits Dahntay accordingly if there is any accuracy to what Wells has posted.

                      We were told that Dahntay was specifically brought in to boost our defensive intensity. Now, 3'Balls apparently hasn't been playing him because he cannot hit the three with regularity.

                      Where is 3'Balls actually focused, on defense or shooting 3's? Plainly, even Mr. Obvious from the Bob and Tom Showwould answer this rhetorical question correctly now.

                      But, when we hit threes at a high rate, as we have been lately, we tend to outscore our opponents and win games. The problem is that it is totally unrealistic to expect that to happen even half of the time, especially in our 82game season, even if we put nobody out there besides Roy who is not a three point threat.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah

                        Originally posted by Kegboy View Post
                        And in Bball's defense, I think it was implicit that if said plan was making the team worse every year, then it should be scrapped in favor of a new one.

                        People today have little patience. A new plan would make little sense since there's nothing wrong with the one the Pacers have now.

                        Someone tell me how you could improve the plan without throwing money at it, and buying lottery picks like the Blazers did? Or, gambling on a quick fix, that could set us back?

                        Herb and Mel paid the tax when we were a contender. It's understandable that Herb doesn't want to spend anymore than he has to in todays clime.

                        The plan is a sound one. Collect a core of players until we have money to spend to flesh out the team with the needed players.

                        As for getting worse, I disagree with that. Bird has swapped out a lot of players and built up the core while remaining competitive until early this year. Now the team has it together and is playing it's best ball since the brawl/David Stern wrecked us.

                        Last year we had one winning streak of three games. This year we won't be far off from last years record. What's more we have two winning streaks of five games and we are on a four game win streak right now.

                        Last year we finished our last 16 games, 8-8. This year we can finish 13-3. And we even look better. What's more all of our games last year seemed to come down to the last possession. This year we are beating good teams by a healthy margin.

                        There's nothing wrong with the Pacers plans, fans just don't have any patience.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah

                          Originally posted by Will Galen View Post
                          You were the one that complained the loudest when Walsh was here that the Pacers didn't have a plan. Now they have a plan and their sticking to it and you don't like it.

                          Simon is a smart man, he has good basketball people and he knows it. I think people on here are way to critical.
                          What exactly is that plan, Will? Is it to alienate the fanbase and ultimately move/sell the team?
                          Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.

                          ------

                          "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork."

                          -John Wooden

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah

                            Originally posted by Bball View Post
                            What exactly is that plan, Will? Is it to alienate the fanbase and ultimately move/sell the team?
                            With the advent of the Internet, fan bases are always going to be alienated when a team is losing.

                            Fans today aren't happy with just winning, they want the team to win their way too.

                            As for the plan, you know what it is, but it's not bearing fruit fast enough to suite you so you are unhappy with it.

                            As for the Pacers leaving Indy . . . it seems most/some of you only want to support the Pacers on your own terms. That's fine, it's your money.

                            As I see it, if the Pacers leave Indy it was because the fan base wasn't patient.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Blah Blah Blah Space the court Blah Blah Blah

                              Originally posted by Will Galen View Post
                              People today have little patience. A new plan would make little sense since there's nothing wrong with the one the Pacers have now.

                              Someone tell me how you could improve the plan without throwing money at it, and buying lottery picks like the Blazers did? Or, gambling on a quick fix, that could set us back?

                              Herb and Mel paid the tax when we were a contender. It's understandable that Herb doesn't want to spend anymore than he has to in todays clime.

                              The plan is a sound one. Collect a core of players until we have money to spend to flesh out the team with the needed players.

                              As for getting worse, I disagree with that. Bird has swapped out a lot of players and built up the core while remaining competitive until early this year. Now the team has it together and is playing it's best ball since the brawl/David Stern wrecked us.

                              Last year we had one winning streak of three games. This year we won't be far off from last years record. What's more we have two winning streaks of five games and we are on a four game win streak right now.

                              Last year we finished our last 16 games, 8-8. This year we can finish 13-3. And we even look better. What's more all of our games last year seemed to come down to the last possession. This year we are beating good teams by a healthy margin.

                              There's nothing wrong with the Pacers plans, fans just don't have any patience.
                              I think there is more patience for rebuilding and the time it takes to do so than it currently appears. The problem is that what has happened has very likely increased the amount of time that the rebuilding process is going to take.

                              This makes it difficult to ultimately trust the "plan" because it will probably take a couple of additional years to undo what has happened from a basketball fundamentals standpoint, whether we simply wreck the team and start over when a new coach comes in, or if the new coach has to untrain the players from 3-Ball and install a plan that fits whatever group of players we have at that time.

                              Yes, our threes are falling now, even against teams that still have had something to play for, and we have won more games than anyone anywhere thought possible after our playoff elimination. But, regarding close games, last year at least the team was consistently close while the season was still salvageable and the playoffs were at least possible, if not likely. We did regress, IMO, despite our threes falling at this point.

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X