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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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comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy :)

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  • #16
    Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

    I'm surprised JOB had time to type all that crap.
    "Just look at the flowers ........ BANG" - Carol "The Walking Dead"

    Comment


    • #17
      Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

      Good grief and good read. The question is how many of these PD brain children actually had the mental capacity to read it.

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      • #18
        Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

        Originally posted by Sookie View Post
        because this team is so young, it might be better to go with a less complicated offense. Still, I don't necessarily begrudge him for his offensive choice.
        Seriously? I was on teams running motion offenses from 6th grade until I graduated high school. So I don't quite get why the complexity of a motion offense is too much for NBA players to run. The players might not have the chemistry or mentality to run a motion offense, but it certainly isn't too complex.

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        • #19
          Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

          Originally posted by EmCeE View Post
          The question is how many of these PD brain children actually had the mental capacity to read it.
          I don't see how this comment can be good for the board.

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

            I looked to see how looooog it was and decided it competed with War and Peace. I never read it either. No matter whether I would agree with the content I have to give you an thumbs up for taking the time to construct the post.

            Comment


            • #21
              Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

              Originally posted by Eleazar View Post
              Seriously? I was on teams running motion offenses from 6th grade until I graduated high school. So I don't quite get why the complexity of a motion offense is too much for NBA players to run. The players might not have the chemistry or mentality to run a motion offense, but it certainly isn't too complex.
              Well that's what I mean, being that they are young and have many new players, the chemistry and mentality isn't there.

              That's why I gave my example of the four seniors and the sophomore that was the best offense I had seen. Chemistry plus mentality.

              So as I said, I have no problem with JOB using this offense. But that doesn't mean I don't think there could be a more a effective offense. Still..I don't criticise him for it.

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

                Originally posted by Hicks View Post
                I don't see how this comment can be good for the board.
                Very good point.
                JOB is a silly man

                Comment


                • #23
                  Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

                  Why anyone without a vested personal interest in Jim O'Brien's employment would go to these lengths is beyond me.

                  I got about one third of the way through. I do intend to read the rest of it at some point, hopefully soon. It is remarkable, in my view, how similar this poster is to O'Bird in phrasing and thought formation, and likewise how similar both are to Jim O'Brien himself, both from quotes in the media, as well as what little I heard his radio shows back when he had those.

                  If it actually is O'Brien, or someone from his staff, good. We have something to look at and understand so we can perhaps appreciate what is being done more, or possibly we can quantify why we believe it to be wrong, despite the fact that it can be safely assumed that the vast majority of us have never been NBA coaches. We still understand the game, and I now am coming to believe that, if this indeed is someone who is involved with coaching the Pacers, the gameplan is being massively overthought, and that is why the players, no matter who we have had here, have had such a difficult time executing the O'Brien system, except in spurts.

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                  • #24
                    Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

                    By the way, maybe I'm missing it, but where is the link back to the original place this is written? You said it wasn't by you, but someone on IndyStar, right?

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                    • #25
                      Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

                      I just found it on the Pluck forums at the Indy Star

                      http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...6-205613599d42

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                      • #26
                        Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

                        Excellent reading, he makes very good points, at least in the first half. I'll read the second one later.

                        1). Indystar Coverage—Like any paper, they control the narrative and the message, what to emphasize and what to deemphasize. Every year, Jim O’Brien says that we have to improve defensively. Why does he say this? BECAUSE JIM O’BRIEN WILL NOT BE SATISFIED UNLESS WE ARE ONE OF THE BEST DEFENSIVE TEAMS IN THE NBA. That’s his obsessive standard, and it’s a major reason why I am happy he is our coach. As such, he tends to not be self-congratulatory in his remarks. No matter how unreasonable this standard may seem--especially considering that last year we had arguably the worst combination of interior defenders in the NBA with cumbersome Hibbert and Murphy—Jim O’Brien is striving to reach this level. But instead of noting how the Pacers have likely overachieved defensively given our personnel, The Indystar usually chooses to frame O’Brien’s displeasure with the defense as an overall Jim O’Brien failure. Just recently Mike Wells had the following line in an article: “Opponents have shot at least 45.4 percent against the Pacers each of the three years Jim O'Brien has coached the team. That won't get it done.” Notice the glaring absence of some important context? As mentioned earlier, the league average was .461…
                        A note on this one. Regardless of the IndyStar feelings towards O'Brien or the Pacers, the biggest issue here is that Mike Wells is bloody awful as a basketball analyst - probably the worst beat writer in the entire league. He frames the issue that way because he's sincerely convinced that the Pacers are a better offensively than defensively because there are lots of points scored in their games - there was an article of him this Summer stating this line of reasoning, that the Pacers needed their defense to catch up their offense.

                        That's acceptable coming from a casual fan, but from a guy who writes about basketball to make a living? Dean Smith published Basketball: Multiple Offense and Defense what, 30 years ago? Yeah, the first edition is from 1981. Three freaking decades later and you're still struggling to get the concept of "possession evaluation"? When all your peers have been aboard for years? It's bizarre.

                        THE MAIN DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MILWAUKEE AND INDIANA WAS THAT MILWAUKEE WAS THE THIRD BEST DEFENSIVE REBOUNDING TEAM IN THE NBA (trailing only Orlando and Cleveland). So for all of this talk about how Scott Skiles is head and shoulders above Jim O’Brien… you switch off Andrew Bogut and Roy Hibbert, and we would have been the better defensive team.
                        The Bucks were a bit better than the Pacers causing turnovers too, but this is true - second chance points account for most of the difference between the two teams defense.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

                          Writing this diatribe is almost as absurd as thinking I would ever consider reading it.

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                          • #28
                            Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

                            Lots of good points that can be debated. First, Zeke was coaching the Pacers when the miracle in the garden happened. The year had not gone particularly well as it is, because he was and is a horrible coach. The fact we lost was because his strategy was definitely worse the JOb's...because we had the talent to beat them. IOW, the results of that round said more about Zeke's ineptness than JOb. I say this because the Nets, a team with virtually the same record as the Pacers, turned around and swept the Celtics in the second round. If JOb was such a good coach, why in the world were they no where near as competitive against an arguably equivalent opponent?

                            Also, if you want to make the point that the Celtics lost to the Pacers the next year, consider this. Rick Carlisle coached the Pacers the next year to a far better regular season and went to the ECF. You can't just look at what happened with one team and make any conclusions.

                            Anyway, the playoffs with the Celtics tells you more about how much better a coach Rick is as compared to Zeke...than anything about JOb.
                            Last edited by BlueNGold; 11-10-2010, 11:36 PM.

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                            • #29
                              Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

                              Got done reading it.

                              O'Brien is not a bad coach. For all of the supposed ruining of the youth he did they are turning out well, maybe his tough lough isn't so bad afterall. This year he is also doing much better playing the kids (sans AJ)

                              Brandon Rush played a hell of a lot for 1st and second year players, and similar thigns can be said for Hibbert when not in foul trouble.

                              The only thing that he consistantly is horrible at IMO is substitutions and rotations which is, truthfully very irritating. But the next coach we have isn't guaranteed to be as good as JOB.
                              Goodbye Captain, My Captain. I wish you had the chance to sink or swim with your ship on its quest for the "ship".

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Re: comments from an O'brien supporter - warning its lengthy

                                I think he's bad at managing time outs, daschysta.

                                He lets teams go on runs for too long before stopping them for me. Especially with a young team you need to kill those runs before they kill your teams confidence. Veteran teams can get away with that, they don't get too high, or too low.

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