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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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The first week of training camp has come and gone (Indystar)

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  • #1

    The first week of training camp has come and gone (Indystar)

    The first week of training camp has come and gone (Indystar)
    -Mike Wells

    http://blogs.indystar.com/pacersinsi...come-and-gone/

    HE ‘BURBS – The Pacers wrapped up the first week of training camp with the blue team smacking the white team in the mouth 32-15 during a 12-minute scrimmage at Conseco Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon.

    The blue team consisted of Darren Collison, Danny Granger, Brandon Rush, Paul George, Jeff Foster, Roy Hibbert and A.J. Price. The white team featured T.J. Ford, Mike Dunleavy, both Lance’s, Josh McRoberts and both Jones’.

    Hibbert made up for a slow start to camp by being active on both ends of the court.

    “That was a real butt kicking,” Jim O’Brien said. “It’s not like the white team were all rookies. That wasn’t the case, they had some veterans and the blue team just wore them out.”

    Don’t read too much to into the teams. O’Brien wanted George to play on the blue team so that he could have an opportunity to play alongside Granger and Rush since that hasn’t happened much during camp.

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

    Here’s a few observations from the first week of camp.

    –The power forward spot is Josh McRoberts’ to lose. He’s been the best player in camp so far, and O’Brien even said he’d probably play about 36 minutes a game if the season start.
    McRoberts has gone from Mr. Irrelevant seven months ago to possibly being Mr. Starter.
    McRoberts is better playing with the starting unit because all he has to worry about is providing his specialty, which is running the court, rebounding and passing.
    The verdict is still out on Tyler Hansbrough because he’s still limited somewhat in practice.

    –This may not be a big deal to some, but I found it interesting when Lance Stephenson walked by me on his way off the court Saturday and I casually asked how things are going for him.
    “I’ve got to get better defensively,” he said right away. “I’m having a difficult time with off-the-ball defending.”
    I was expecting him to say something like, “It’s going good. I’m glad to have a day off tomorrow.”
    Nope.
    He wanted to talk about his defense.
    I give the young man credit for speaking up and talking about it unsolicited.

    –It’s just one week, but this year’s team already has a different feel to it.
    The players are focused and there’s not a lot of joking around on the sidelines like in past years. It also helps that there aren’t any injured players sitting out watching.
    The scrimmages are pretty competitive (not counting what happened Saturday), which usually means things tend to get testy at times.
    I was told the players spent time in the locker room after practice Saturday talking about how to play the different defenses. This was done with no coaches around.
    I can’t recall the last time that the players took it amongst themselves to have a discussion like that, especially considering they were talking defense.
    That’s a sign of good team chemistry.
    We’ll see if that translates into more victories this season.

    –Darren Collison is still learning to play without the ball as much. He should be fine once it’s all said and done.
    He’s so quick with the ball and he likes getting after it defensively.
    Fans will definitely embrace how he plays.

    –T.J. Ford has the inside track to be Collison’s backup.
    He deserves it because he’s gotten off to a good start in camp.
    I know a lot of you have said you’d prefer Stephenson or A.J. Price to backup Collison, but Ford (if he’s not traded) is the best option at the moment.
    Stephenson – as he acknowledged – is not a good defender. Ask anybody in the organization and they’ll tell you the same thing. I’ll say this, though, Stephenson definitely knows how to get buckets on the offensive end. I’ve seen some team officials just shake their head after watching Stephenson break somebody down off the dribble.
    Price is still working his way back from knee surgery.

    twitter.com/MikeWellsNBA



    The team discussing defense without the coaches even being there excites me more then anything. This team is going to be fun to watch this year and will win due to the players' dedication this year to winning and defense.
    Last edited by Pacerfan; 10-03-2010, 01:34 AM. Reason: highlight
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: The first week of training camp has come and gone (Indystar)

    A few interesting things..

    no crap Lance has trouble guarding Darren. The speed factor is just so huge. He's slow footed, too slow footed for PGs. However, I noticed that he plays SG some in Practice too. He's also not a PG, but I'm not gonna argue this anymore, it'll be figured out soon enough.

    Good to get a Tyler mention, he's restricted..okay. Also, good for Josh. I know it's just the first week of camp, but good for him.

    I noticed that Dahntay and Solo aren't even mentioned, and TJ's bit comes with a "if not traded"

    and speaking of. I'm glad there seems to be a definite "Collison's starting" vibe coming from O'brien. (I still wouldn't be shocked if TJ starts...or even worse finishes games early on in the season) But I do think, so long as AJ is working himself back, obviously Ford has to play. I don't think we want to send AJ out there if he's still working himself back, which would probably force Collison to play quite a bit. Still, I'd like to trade TJ.

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: The first week of training camp has come and gone (Indystar)

      I'm really stoked for pre-season to start. This is going to be a long week.
      "As a bearded man, i was very disappointed in Love. I am gathering other bearded men to discuss the status of Kevin Love's beard. I am motioning that it must be shaved."

      - ilive4sports

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: The first week of training camp has come and gone (Indystar)

        Nice to have an over-view of the whole week rather than our own we make with 15 mins of total footage (its really* fun though).

        Im tellin you, McRob at the 4 will work. No reason it shouldn't. He'll give it 110%, hes gonna board and hes gonna play D... Or he'll find Jims bad side again, guaranteed.

        I cant disagree with the "team" meeting with the defense, thats epic. Lately I've been watching the clips of camp and looking a lot to see the players NOT playing, how they react to plays. Lots of encouragement and excitement.. as there should be. Good to see regardless

        * see edit.
        Last edited by Pacers4Life; 10-03-2010, 10:37 PM. Reason: LANGUAGE!!
        Reggie Miller is a God. Period.

        Passion. Pride. Pacers.

        It's ALWAYS Miller Time.
        #31 & Only

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: The first week of training camp has come and gone (Indystar)

          I feel good about this team. I think it is going to be a much more enjoyable season to watch.

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: The first week of training camp has come and gone (Indystar)

            I would hope that that blue team lineup should take the other lineup to the woodshed.

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: The first week of training camp has come and gone (Indystar)

              I'm reading a lot in between the lines here, so I could be totally off-base.

              I think Danny learned something this summer playing with Team USA that most of us never even thought about: How to be a leader.

              The evidence:

              -I think it was O'Brien who said this, but Danny was asked what he learned from his Team USA experience this summer and his first response is "Chauncey Billups is a great leader."

              -We have quotes from Lance and Brandon saying that Danny called them and "gave them an earful" shortly after their mishaps this summer.

              -We've got team outings to hamburger joints. This may be totally tangential.

              -We've got players staying after to discuss defense with no coaches.

              We're getting some player leadership with this group of guys that we've not seen before. It may or may not be coming from Danny, but it's coming from somewhere. And it's good.

              I love that Lance is talking about defense, and I agree with Wells about his scoring ability. I very honestly believe that Lance could average 17-18 ppg and 4-5 asts on a really bad team if you gave him 30+ minutes. (Sidenote: That's why Tyreke Evans should not have won ROY last year.)
              "A man with no belly has no appetite for life."

              - Salman Rushdie

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: The first week of training camp has come and gone (Indystar)

                Given that it's a tiny amount of the total played, I think TJ has looked pretty good.
                Solo has shown up as well, looks like he realizes that someone with a contract isn't going to be here after all.

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