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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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If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

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  • If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

    ... then shouldn't we feel a little good about the playoffs?

    I mean aside from the fact that we will be in the playoffs for the first time since Rick Carlisle was the coach, we should really feel pretty good about the way our team has played against the upper echelon of teams recently. Our last 4 homes games we have beaten New York, Chicago and Boston. That's the number 1,2 & 7 seed in the Eastern Conference. Sure we lost to Sacramento and Detroit, but we're not playing Sacramentos and Detroits in the playoffs. Not to mention that Sacramento and Detroit are playing spoilers right now, similar to how we have typically played the past few seasons. Also, Sacramento is playing some great basketball lately. They have won 4 straight and have beaten 3 playoff teams in that stretch (Pacers, 76ers, and Suns, as well as Milwaukee who is trying to make the playoffs).

    This is all just a crazy theory of mine, but I think MAYBE it might hold some merit. Just a positive way to look at things as we head into a first round matchup with either the Bulls or Celtics.
    Last edited by SMosley21; 03-30-2011, 12:02 PM.

  • #2
    Re: If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

    I think, assuming we get in as the 8th, that we'll give our first-round opponent a good series. We probly have no business beating them, but they'll get a work-out. If anything, it gives us a minimum of 3 more games to watch, and a playoff game in Indy which is always a nice lil economic boost.
    Last edited by Kid Minneapolis; 03-30-2011, 12:11 PM.
    There are two types of quarterbacks in the league: Those whom over time, the league figures out ... and those who figure out the league.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

      I'll feel good about the playoffs after we clinch a spot.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

        Originally posted by tora tora View Post
        I'll feel good about the playoffs after we clinch a spot.
        Have faith my friend. Have faith.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

          Playoffs are a different animal. No missing players (mostly), no underestimating opponents, no back to backs on the road when the other guy has been off 3 days.

          I mean it makes sense in concept, but I think you get the higher seeds A game without exception almost. Thats different than a way too long season.

          Playoffs are the first one to 4 games, not 1 of 82.

          I do think match ups in a playoff series have a huge impact over the course of games. I also think coaching can make a difference.
          Last edited by Speed; 03-30-2011, 12:18 PM.

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          • #6
            Re: If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

            Was it two years ago that the bulls gave the celtics that 7 game series which had many overtimes? Wasn't that a 2 seed and 7 seed? That's what I will hope for.
            DG for 3

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            • #7
              Re: If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

              Getting up for the good teams..and not so much for the not so good teams, is one of the biggest indicators of this team's youth.

              I think, after the first game (assuming we make the playoffs) it'll be a very well fought out series. I don't expect, or even think in the slightest, that we'll win. But I don't think it will be easy for the teams that play us.

              The first game though..I'm not going to be shocked if a good majority of the team essentially chokes. Our ten player rotation consists of first, second and third year players..plus Danny, Jeff, and either Dahntay or Dun. (So...7 of our 10) Not going to shock me if they are a bit overwhelmed..and either get stupid or try and do too much.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

                If I am not mistaken, the good teams we beat were all coming in off a back to back, while we had not played the night before

                take it for what its worth
                Sittin on top of the world!

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                • #9
                  Re: If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

                  Originally posted by 90'sNBARocked View Post
                  If I am not mistaken, the good teams we beat were all coming in off a back to back, while we had not played the night before

                  take it for what its worth
                  The Knicks lost to us twice, at home and then in Conseco. The Bulls and Celtics were both on the 2nd game of back to backs.

                  Our recent losses...

                  @ Oklahoma City
                  @ Houston
                  @ Minnesota
                  @ Boston
                  @ Memphis
                  @ Detroit

                  were all on the 2nd night of a back-to-back set. Can we use that excuse for those games too?

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                  • #10
                    Re: If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

                    The playoffs are completely different - just ask the Celtics from last year. After January 1st they were a .500 team and yet they get to game 7 of the NBA Finals.

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                    • #11
                      Re: If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

                      This idea is fools gold. Stand a better chance of getting swept in the 1st round as we do winning a game or 2. Good playoff teams turn it on during the playoffs. So while we might be eeking out a a few wins against the best teams we are going to have to elevate our play much more just to win a game. Our only hope is that Boston or Chicagos Chemistry is not where it needs to be in the 1st round having all their injured players return.
                      You can't get champagne from a garden hose.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

                        Originally posted by graphic-er View Post
                        This idea is fools gold. Stand a better chance of getting swept in the 1st round as we do winning a game or 2. Good playoff teams turn it on during the playoffs. So while we might be eeking out a a few wins against the best teams we are going to have to elevate our play much more just to win a game. Our only hope is that Boston or Chicagos Chemistry is not where it needs to be in the 1st round having all their injured players return.
                        I disagree. I think the chances of this team winning 1 game no matter who it is is far greater than the possibility of them being swept.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

                          SMosely21-

                          Are you sure that the Knicks fall into the 'good team' category ?

                          On the thread topic specifically, putting aside individual matchups
                          for the moment, the best draw is probably either CHIC or MIA. I
                          could see either team at less than optimal in one game.

                          Given their collective age and mileage, the Celts will probably all
                          business in an attempt to get an series over quickly to preserve
                          energy for the long haul into June.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

                            You seem to misunderstand something.
                            This whole "good against good teams, bad against bad teams" is just incorrect. Most of our wins this season have come from bad teams.
                            Yes, we have beaten chicago once, and celtics once. But both have beaten us 3 times.
                            Going 1-3 against good teams doesn't make you "good against good teams". It makes you an average team.
                            Originally posted by Piston Prince
                            Bobcat fans telling us to cheer up = epic fail season
                            "Josh Smith Re-building the city of Detroit one brick at a time"

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: If the Pacers show up against good teams, and don't against bad teams...

                              Originally posted by graphic-er View Post
                              This idea is fools gold. Stand a better chance of getting swept in the 1st round as we do winning a game or 2. Good playoff teams turn it on during the playoffs. So while we might be eeking out a a few wins against the best teams we are going to have to elevate our play much more just to win a game. Our only hope is that Boston or Chicagos Chemistry is not where it needs to be in the 1st round having all their injured players return.
                              You read my mind.

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