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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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ABADays has passed away.

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  • #76
    Re: ABADays has passed away.

    I could kick myself. I was going to ask him to go to a game with me last spring and it didn't come together for whatever reason on my end. He didn't know but to myself I thought I'd make it up to him this season, felt like I owed him.

    I guess my main concern was that I wasn't sure how mobile he was, but I didn't know the cancer had come back.

    Great guy, as the thread shows.


    If there is something to take away from this it's his impact and how we can carry on that attitude. There are tons of online forums for all sorts of subjects. Some others are on the PD par, but not many. The fact that we do get together and make it a family is special, even if it seems trivial or simple at the time.

    Hopefully there will be a day we look back and talk about Gnome or Peck or maybe even me like this, meaning that we will have carried on this Pacer fan family for decades to come. There's no good reason not too IMO. John has shown us the model and we'd do him proud to follow him I think.

    Hopefully he's someplace where he can feel our appreciation too.

    Comment


    • #77
      Re: ABADays has passed away.

      He always seemed to say the right things in a sentence or two. The trivial things never seemed to fall on him in heavy ways. My prayers and condolences to his family.

      Comment


      • #78
        Re: ABADays has passed away.

        Very sad news to hear, my thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. A passionate Pacers fan with memories of the great ABA era when they were dominant, and a military man as well.

        You don't find many people out there as respectable, and well thought of as ABADays. The one silver lining to think about with his passing, along with remembering a great guy, is imagining him sitting down to have a beer, and conversation with Roger Brown.

        Rest in peace, ABADays.

        Comment


        • #79
          Re: ABADays has passed away.

          Wow. You guys have summed it up pretty well. I remember ABA from when I first found the Star forums almost 13 years ago. My prayers go to his family, his friends, and even you guys. I never got to meet him in person, but like many other, always enjoyed what he contributed on here. R.I.P.

          Comment


          • #80
            Re: ABADays has passed away.

            RIP ABAdays

            Comment


            • #81
              Re: ABADays has passed away.

              This saddens me to no end. I considered him my very close friend, even though I met him only online, but we shared another connection oter than the pacers.

              As other have posted, he was in Iraq running one of the MWRs at LSA Anaconda, in Balad Iraq. He did things for the troops no one can understand. Every year he was there he organized a party for Jimm Buffet fans called Buffettfest Iraq. I still have one of the Tshirts he sent me for sending supplies to the party in Iraq. The party was amazing for the troops from the pictures I saw. They had live bands, and give aways you can't believe for the troops including tshirts, cds, dvds, leis, etc etc etc....He even helped arrange a live concert DVD to be sent direct from Jimmy Buffett himself with a recorded message to the festival for the troops.

              In addition, he did a lot for me while my brother was stationened in Iraq. He explained to me the experiences te troops have over there told me the best stuff to send in care packages, and just generally talked a lot in private messages back and forth the entire time he was over there. I told my brother about him and when he was in LSA anaconda moving through even for a day, he went and met ABA in person. ABA took time out of his busy schedule and spent several hours just talking with my brother and made a real impression on my brother.

              He was such a great guy. I will miss his presence on the forums and a lot fo people including the troops will miss him much more for the contributions he made to their service. The thing that struck me most was always how humble he was. He never believed the service and long time he sent in Iraq was anything other than his duty to the, in his words, "the real hero's".

              RIP John. I will miss you my friend. I am a better person for having met you. I imagine many people who did left with a very similar impression.

              Comment


              • #82
                Re: ABADays has passed away.

                I don't want to seem redundant, but I feel the need to post just a little something.

                I had the privilege to meet this man one time. It was at last years draft party as thejaddler has said. I spoke with him for a few minutes before we went up to Legends. I can tell you he was one nicest people I've ever met. I'm certain about that and I only met this man one time. Even when he wasn't talking you could see his kindness in the way he carried himself and the way he listened to others speak. You could tell just by looking at his face and seeing the way he handled himself with his wife (my condolences to you madame.) that this man had a kind and loving heart. I never really got to interact with him in anything major here on PD, but meeting him has always stuck with me. And that's the truth, not just something I think of due to the recent unfortunate events.
                It's very clear that Mr. Jackson was an outstanding fan and an outstanding man . It's too bad I was unable to be more involved with him, but I will certainly never forget the conversations I had with John Jackson.
                Coach Vogel on the Chicago crowd in game 4 : "I only heard pacers fans. I didn't see any red, I saw Pacers fans I saw yellow and blue, and I heard Pacers chants. That's all I heard the whole game."

                http://www.cacawebdev.com

                Comment


                • #83
                  Re: ABADays has passed away.

                  I found his obituary at the funeral home....I didn't know some of the stuff posted in it, like he used to be David Letterman's Radio Show Producer.....

                  http://www.leppertandhensley.com/services.aspx?ID=1173

                  Comment


                  • #84
                    Re: ABADays has passed away.

                    I thought I would also post something that he had PM'ed me after a post I had made making fun of Celine Dion one day.....I think this gives a good idea how big of a heart this man had.....I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I posted it.....We had many conversations before this one, and many after. I will miss him.....

                    And I quote from John Jackson, 4/27/2007:
                    "Your remark about Celine Dion was funny. I know everyone makes fun of her but there is a little story about why I like her.

                    Right after 9/11 - I, like nearly everyone, felt helpless. I was in such a total funk. I watched the Tribute to Heroes. Rarely has a song had an affect on me as when she sang God Bless America. I mean, she's Canadian for crying out loud. But I will tell you something. That song was a defining moment. I didn't feel helpless any longer. It is one of the major factors I am here. I was not going to feel helpless anymore - I was going to do something.

                    It was an odd route to get here but I was determined, as a civilian, to stand with the soldiers.

                    If you get a chance to see the video you will know what I mean. As corny as it may suond, it was the anthem in my heart and brought me here. "

                    Comment


                    • #85
                      Re: ABADays has passed away.

                      This is terribly sad news. Great man, great fan.

                      Comment


                      • #86
                        Re: ABADays has passed away.

                        I was sorry to hear this news. I didn't know him real well but he seemed like a great guy.

                        Comment


                        • #87
                          Re: ABADays has passed away.

                          Oh my goodness. I've been absent from the Digest for some time, and I just logged in tonight and saw this at the top and my jaw dropped.

                          I didn't know John personally, but as a poster on here, his was the simple opinion that always seemed to be the voice of reason. His perspective on anything was always the old-school, common sense, unrattled perspective. I loved reading his posts because you could tell in every one of them that John was a truly good guy, honest, fair, and thoughtful.

                          His work in Iraq speaks for itself. What an incredible way to serve those who serve our country.

                          John will be greatly missed in many circles, I'm sure, and this message board is certainly no different. People aren't made like him anymore, and every time we lose someone with his heart and character, and there is no one to replace them.
                          It's a new day for Pacers Basketball.

                          Comment


                          • #88
                            Re: ABADays has passed away.

                            Originally posted by Adam1987 View Post
                            March 18, 2010
                            Thanks, John Jackson

                            * Read Comments (6)

                            Some blog regulars might remember the name. He used Crash Davis as a handle on comments. He had been a blog regular since our first season.

                            John paid me one of the kindest compliments I have received in this online adventure. An Indy guy from the South Side, he was working with the troops in Iraq when the Colts made their Super Bowl XLI run. He wrote after the Colts' win and shared that following the live chat during the game made him feel like he was in the stadium with me.

                            I did a story on him the next season. I remember interviewing him from home, on my speaker phone, from Iraq.

                            Anyway, John passed away today. I'm told he had been battling cancer. I wasn't aware of his condition until a few days ago.

                            I don't blog much in the offseason, as most of you know, but I thought John deserved a shout out.

                            Here's to you, Crash. Thanks for following the blog and for your correspondence. Your compliment will never be forgotten.

                            I will miss you.


                            http://blogs.indystar.com/philb/2010...n_jackson.html
                            I was just in my PD archives and stumbled across the picture from the article referenced here. I don't have the article, unfortunately......

                            PSN: MRat731 XBL: MRat0731

                            Comment


                            • #89
                              Re: ABADays has passed away.

                              There was a time that I'd driven down from Chicago for a game and John was also going to be at the game, so he came over to "204" to hang out for a while.

                              We probably spent the entire second quarter of that game having a good natured "bickering" about Jamaal Tinsley. You can all imagine what was said. But it was good natured, and an enjoyable back-and-forth.

                              That's my best memory of John.

                              Last year, when I donated to his cancer walk team, I jokingly put in that it was a gift from the Jamaal Tinsley fan club, knowing that John would get a kick out of it. John was a guy that I could debate with while never worrying that it would get ugly or personal.

                              And John's passion for the things he was passionate about. We should all try to live our lives to be as fulfilling as his was.

                              Thanks, John, for your service to the country. Thanks for your contributions to PD. And thanks for fighting the brave war against that terrible thing known as cancer.
                              Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
                              Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
                              Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
                              Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
                              And life itself, rushing over me
                              Life itself, the wind in black elms,
                              Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you

                              Comment


                              • #90
                                Re: ABADays has passed away.

                                There are several stories about ABA on here and I can add one more.

                                I have been to a few of forum parties and met ABA just twice, I believe. One night at Perkins after Pizza King closed I was sitting across from ABA. I didn’t have much money since I had a two hour drive each way, (I was a poor college student) but I was contemplating ordering a piece of pie. I went ahead and ordered the pie, then immediately told the waitress never mind, because I wanted to make sure I had enough gas money to get home. Well, after a few minutes passed the waitress came out with a piece of pie. I looked at her crappy and reminded her I had changed my mind. ABA looked at me and said he had told her to bring it anyways. I told him next party I owed him a piece of pie. Too bad I never got the chance.

                                That’s just the type of guy ABA was. I did not know him very well, but I do know he was an exceptional human being that served him country proudly. RIP ABA
                                Last edited by Believe_in_blue; 05-18-2010, 11:36 PM.

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