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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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So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

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  • #61
    Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

    Originally posted by Day-V View Post
    Haha, posted that on Page 1.
    Oops! I should've clicked that link.

    Comment


    • #62
      Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

      Originally posted by Hicks View Post
      It is absolutely relevant. If you want to make a trade, you're making a phone call to another human being. Pissing them off isn't going to help with that. I thought I even recall him taunting people on the phone. Hopefully it was more of a playful thing that's been misrepresented. If not, however, ....
      I think his work with the Jailblazers speaks for itself.

      Comment


      • #63
        Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

        If Pritchard were given a free hand, I'd expect huge improvements in our stat-based scouting and international scouting, both of which are relatively weak areas for the Pacers IMO.

        Here's some snippets from a Pritchard article from Sloan Sports Conference in 2010. It's a long, rambling article, so I won't post the whole thing. But I think it's revealing of his philosophy and methods.

        http://www.blazersedge.com/2010/3/9/...st-has-its-day

        How do Blazers coaches and players incorporate the study of advanced statistics on a daily basis? You might remember Nate McMillan told me that advanced statistics are something that he has access to but that he prefers breaking down video tape. When asked whether he used stats to guide offseason personnel moves or in-season adjustments, Pritchard leaned more heavily towards the former. But he did say, "I do believe there's huge value in applying [stats] to the coaching staff" and he spoke of "educating coaches" regarding the tendencies of their own players and opponents.

        As for the players, I've mentioned this year that both Brandon Roy and Nicolas Batum seem particularly interested in the pregame scouting reports prepared for them by the team. Discussing that interest, Pritchard said that it varied from player to player but that the biggest concern is ensuring that management, coaching staff and players are all on the same page when it comes to the potential offensive and defensive adjustments that might be suggested by the numbers. "I think it's all individual dependent. Some players love as much data as they can get," Pritchard said. "The data is available, our assistant coaches know it. The biggest key going forward is making sure everyone is speaking on the same level." This thought echoed what a number of other executives and observers -- including Simmons -- mentioned throughout the day: that statistical analysis only has value if it is communicated cleanly from source to players.
        Of all the panelists, Pritchard seemed to place the most value on the draft process as a way to improve his team. "The draft has been very important for us," he stated emphatically. The main reason? Rookie scale contracts. Because rookies are paid according to a specific, relatively modest scale, there is a great benefit to having a number of contributors on their rookie deals simultaneously. As I mentioned yesterday, the Blazers have 5 members of their rotation -- Cunningham, Jeff Pendergraph, Jerryd Bayless, Rudy Fernandez and Nicolas Batum -- who will combine to make less than a single veteran, Joel Przybilla, who might not actually suit up at all due to injury. The combined impact of those players, both on the court and on the books, is almost immeasurable.

        It might be helpful to view players on their rookie deals as the prototypical "undervalued asset" from Michael Lewis's Moneyball. In that book, Lewis writes that 10 years ago the Major League Baseball market generally undervalued the ability to draw walks. Players that could regularly draw walks, get on base and eventually be driven in by their teammates were significantly easier and cheaper to acquire than their impact on wins and losses suggested they should be. In the current NBA market, where a team might sell off a second round draft pick and think nothing of it, that draft pick and the salary owed to it has become undervalued. If you can find a rookie who is ready to contribute immediately and is locked into a certain salary structure, his contributions per dollar spent will almost certainly exceed an average NBA veteran who requires a substantially higher salary. "Sometimes you have a great talent but it doesn't make sense with the contract," Pritchard lamented. This helps explain why the team has opted to pass on veteran acquisitions in the past and instead honed in on NBA-ready, 4-year college players such as Cunningham and Pendergraph when filling out its roster.

        That search for value has guided the Blazers' recent free agency and trade moves too. Put simply, the Blazers are engaging in a form of risk assessment: The more a potential acquisition might cost, the more potential damage he can do to the team's salary cap flexibility. Mark Cuban praised the Blazers moves over the last few years, stating simply, "Who you are not picking up is as telling as who you are picking up."
        As the panel began to draw to a close, Pritchard repeated two points made earlier in the day by Bill Polian, the highly-respected architect and President of the Indianapolis Colts. First, that statistical analysis can be very effective in reinforcing an organizational philosophy. Polian pointed out that he might evaluate a nose tackle totally differently than the New England Patriots and that the two teams' systems were so different and complicated that trying to swap players from one team to another would be an almost meaningless exercise. "We all see certain [statistical] things that are very important to us. It may be different for Denver," Pritchard repeated. "If we're about A, B,C, D and E [statistically] and those things trickle down to what we do [on the court as a team and off the court as an organization], that helps us have the best data. It doesn't mean that's the best data for Denver too. It just means that data is best for us."

        Second, that statistical analysis cannot guarantee victories but it can go a long way to establishing a winning organization. Polian stated the best talent evaluators in the NFL really only succeed about 55% of the time despite all of the elaborate measurement techniques they use. Pritchard stated that he believed the success rate was similar in the NBA and that building a team built for long-term success versus building a title team was comparable to playing the stock market. "It's sort of like the S&P 500. You can beat the S&P 500 every year but if you're trying to be #1 in our sport, you have to take huge risks."

        Comment


        • #64
          Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

          Originally posted by Foul on Smits View Post
          I think his work with the Jailblazers speaks for itself.
          He took a team full of criminals and miscreants and brought them back to being a playoff team but not a true contender.

          Or exactly the spot the Pacers are in right now only without a player nearly as good as Aldridge or a healthy Roy.
          "I had to take her down like Chris Brown."

          -Lance Stephenson

          Comment


          • #65
            Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

            Originally posted by troyc11a View Post
            Nobody saw Durant blowing up like he did. Nobody!
            Of course people did.

            Comment


            • #66
              Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

              Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
              I will never fault him for re-signing Roy
              He knew he had a bad knee (the one that's already ended his time as a star player), and he not only offered Roy more money than the owners told him to, he's alleged to have been coercing WITH Roy so that they both might get lucrative new contracts at the time (Pritchard was fishing for an extension of his own).

              Comment


              • #67
                Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

                I have no idea what really happened with Pritchard in Portland but after them dumping Cho for no reason and a lot of stuff you hear their fans say about their ownership group on BlazersEdge I take any rumors outta Portland with a pretty big grain of salt.

                Comment


                • #68
                  Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

                  Originally posted by Ozwalt72 View Post
                  I think his point is that Roy's talent was worth the risk.

                  I think, though, that Paul Allen's buddies have that franchise in as big a mess as I've seen. Cho, Pritchard....was either guy really the problem there?
                  It's a risk when you think there's a chance his knee is done. It's just dumb when you KNOW his knee is done.

                  Comment


                  • #69
                    Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

                    That concerns me a bit. He let personal dissatisfaction get in the way of his professionalism.

                    Paul Allen is more spendy than Simon.

                    Comment


                    • #70
                      Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

                      Wells made it pretty clear that for this season Pritchard would be working under Bird and Morway, but the question all season will be what happens in the chain of command once Larry officially leaves.
                      Passion. Pride. Patience. Pacers

                      Comment


                      • #71
                        Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

                        Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
                        Roy is the franchise. it would have been like the pacers not re-signing Reggie back in 1999. Unless the injury is such that it is a 100% sure thing that the player is done, you re-sign him.
                        And from everything I've come across on it, this is as close to 100% as you can get short of his leg falling off.

                        Comment


                        • #72
                          Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

                          Originally posted by Hicks View Post
                          Of course people did.
                          I mean he was arguably the #1 prospect that year 6'11 and could score at will in college and had a freakish standing reach and wingspan like a center.(i mean that is as rare as a 7fter like greg. I mean i assume Portland thought Durant and Oden would be superstars.

                          Comment


                          • #73
                            Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

                            Originally posted by BRushWithDeath View Post
                            He took a team full of criminals and miscreants and brought them back to being a playoff team but not a true contender.

                            Or exactly the spot the Pacers are in right now only without a player nearly as good as Aldridge or a healthy Roy.
                            You know, if Oden and Roy were healthy, I actually that's a team that could have been a contender.

                            Comment


                            • #74
                              Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

                              Originally posted by Foul on Smits View Post
                              I think his work with the Jailblazers speaks for itself.
                              I hope you and everyone else realizes that I'm not trying to be balanced right now when it comes to Pritchard: I'm just trying to analyze his cons.

                              Yes, he has his positives; no doubt about it.

                              Comment


                              • #75
                                Re: So we're hiring Kevin Pritchard...

                                Originally posted by wintermute View Post
                                If Pritchard were given a free hand, I'd expect huge improvements in our stat-based scouting and international scouting, both of which are relatively weak areas for the Pacers IMO.
                                But I thought we'd already hired (I don't know his name) one of the top advanced stat guys out there already; a couple of years ago, I think?

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