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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"

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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.

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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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Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

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  • #31
    Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

    Originally posted by Taterhead View Post
    Everyone knows I'm smug, I was just point out that he was too.

    But seriously, what does Shawne Williams or James White have to do with Lance Stephenson's ability as an NBA player? I don't remember Larry ever proclaiming either one our best player. Bird isn't making that claim based on nothing. And he sure isn't an idiot with a bad track record evaluating talent. He has had some misses, like everyone else. But lets not paint him to be David Kahn.
    Nobody's saying he was a bad pick at 42. I'm just saying that we shouldn't put too much weight on Larry's statement. He said the same things about Jamaal Tinsley and Ron Artest.

    I'm not dismissing Larry's moves, which I think have been quite good. I'm just saying he sometimes hypes players for reasons other than his own personal excitement. My original post just said that the hype seemed odd.

    Do you really see this kid becoming better than Danny?
    This space for rent.

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    • #32
      Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

      Originally posted by Taterhead View Post
      Everyone knows I'm smug, I was just point out that he was too.
      He may not be right (always a possibility), but there wasn't anything smug about his comment.
      This space for rent.

      Comment


      • #33
        Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

        Originally posted by Anthem View Post
        Nobody's saying he was a bad pick at 42. I'm just saying that we shouldn't put too much weight on Larry's statement. He said the same things about Jamaal Tinsley and Ron Artest.
        Well to be fair, Tinsley was DAMN GOOD for us for awhile, up untill around the last 2 years he was an active player on the roster with us ..

        and Ron , he still is a pretty good player, albeit batchit crazy .. and you cannot deny how good he was for us when Bird was coach, and up untill the brawl.
        "Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

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        • #34
          Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

          Originally posted by Kemo View Post
          Well to be fair, Tinsley was DAMN GOOD for us for awhile, up untill around the last 2 years he was an active player on the roster with us ..

          and Ron , he still is a pretty good player, albeit batchit crazy .. and you cannot deny how good he was for us when Bird was coach, and up untill the brawl.
          Anthem only used two examples.

          Larry also said he was going to sign one of the best shooters in the league, and then went out and signed Travis Deiner. Larry likes to exaggerate a tad bit.
          Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

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          • #35
            Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

            Originally posted by Since86 View Post
            Anthem only used two examples.

            Larry also said he was going to sign one of the best shooters in the league, and then went out and signed Travis Deiner. Larry likes to exaggerate a tad bit.
            Travis Denier is a hell of a shooter problem is thats all he can do and he is like 5'9

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            • #36
              Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

              Yes, he's a good shooter, no one will deny that. But he's not one of the best shooters in the league. That's the exaggeration part, and that was what Bird said.
              Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

              Comment


              • #37
                Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

                Originally posted by Since86 View Post
                Anthem only used two examples.

                Larry also said he was going to sign one of the best shooters in the league, and then went out and signed Travis Deiner. Larry likes to exaggerate a tad bit.
                true but was it that he said he wantedd to sign one of the best shooters in the league, but all he could get was Travis Diener

                OR

                was Bird saying he was getting one of the best shooters in the league, knowing he was about to sign Diener
                Sittin on top of the world!

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                • #38
                  Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

                  We already had the player when Larry made the statement. I was never clear on whether he was talking about Diener or Kareem Rush, but in either case it was an exaggeration, which Larry is prone to.

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                  • #39
                    Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

                    Originally posted by pacer4ever View Post
                    Travis Denier is a hell of a shooter problem is thats all he can do and he is like 5'9
                    When he was getting a lot of minutes, I felt more confident with Diener running the point than anyone else we had at the time.

                    Comment


                    • #40
                      Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

                      Originally posted by 90'sNBARocked View Post
                      true but was it that he said he wantedd to sign one of the best shooters in the league, but all he could get was Travis Diener

                      OR

                      was Bird saying he was getting one of the best shooters in the league, knowing he was about to sign Diener
                      He said he was going too, not wanted. I remember it pretty clearly, because it raised quite a stink when it happened around here. Lot's of "this is your best shooter?" type comments etc.

                      He was still being referred to as the "Boomer for adults" and it just added fuel to the fire because it was one of his first FA signings.
                      Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

                      Comment


                      • #41
                        Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

                        Originally posted by Since86 View Post
                        Yes, he's a good shooter, no one will deny that. But he's not one of the best shooters in the league. That's the exaggeration part, and that was what Bird said.
                        He was coming off of at least one season shooting more than 40% from 3. That made him one of the best shooters in the league, strictly speaking.

                        Some people don't find that good enough, and have to incorporate more complicated criteria, but the bottom line is, if you're shooting that well from the NBA 3-line, and there's plenty of attempts to go with it, you're a damned good shooter, and one of the best in the league.

                        People were just too wrapped up in the fantasy that he meant someone like Ray Allen, and Ray Allen is not Ray Allen just because he's one of the best shooters in the league.

                        Comment


                        • #42
                          Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

                          I know, I'm not saying he wasn't/isn't one of the best. But you've shown that there was the debate, that's all I'm commenting on. That Bird said he was going to sign one of the best shooters, he signed Diener, and it made people raise their eyebrows about it.

                          It just shows Larry is a little loose with his descriptions, or a lot loose depending on what your stance is.
                          Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

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                          • #43
                            Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

                            Originally posted by Since86 View Post
                            I know, I'm not saying he wasn't/isn't one of the best. But you've shown that there was the debate, that's all I'm commenting on. That Bird said he was going to sign one of the best shooters, he signed Diener, and it made people raise their eyebrows about it.

                            It just shows Larry is a little lose with his descriptions.
                            Right; I think we're on the same page.

                            That whole thing always annoyed me because everyone (should have) realized that we had no money or assets to go get a Ray Allen, Rip Hamilton, Michael Redd "best shooter" kind of guy, yet it didn't stop people form fantasizing, and then once their expectations got so high, of course they were then majorly disappointed when we signed Travis Diener and (who I guess also might have been who Larry was thinking of) Kareem Rush that summer.

                            I expected small frys, and that's what we got, but some people let their imaginations set them up for disappointment.

                            By the way, I looked, and actually Diener only had one stellar shooting season. His first year in Orlando, he averaged 10mpg, 2.5 3pa per game, and hit just shy of 44% from 3.

                            Interestingly, he never shot better than 39% from it the rest of his career, and his career average is a modest 35%. Go figure.

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                            • #44
                              Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

                              Anyway, this praise of Lance feels more like the praise of Tinsley to me than does it remind me of the "one of the best shooters" talk.

                              Once upon a time, Larry expected Jamaal Tinsley to be the next Indiana Pacer in the all-star game, and at that time, it was a valid expectation to put on Jamaal. I think that's what he's doing with Lance. Lance is pretty talented, but that 10 cent head of his severely threatens his potential in this league.

                              I think Larry is simultaneously putting it on Lance to try to work hard and achiever whatever his ceiling may be, while also expressing that he thinks he really is pretty talented.

                              I know there's disagreement on that.

                              Comment


                              • #45
                                Re: Lance Stephenson Showing Signs Of Progress This Summer

                                Originally posted by Anthem View Post
                                Nobody's saying he was a bad pick at 42. I'm just saying that we shouldn't put too much weight on Larry's statement. He said the same things about Jamaal Tinsley and Ron Artest.

                                I'm not dismissing Larry's moves, which I think have been quite good. I'm just saying he sometimes hypes players for reasons other than his own personal excitement. My original post just said that the hype seemed odd.

                                Do you really see this kid becoming better than Danny?
                                Fair enough.

                                I've thought Lance was gonna be a great pro the first time I ever seen him play, which was about 4-5 years ago. So Larry's statement resonates with me a little different than most. I think the kid is in the top 5-10% of NBA players in terms of natural ability. That is just my opinion so you can take that for it's worth. Now as far as whether he'll be better than Granger.....we all know that is impossible to say right now. But his ceiling IMO, is MUCH higher. And again, that is just my opinion. But, you know me and you have widely differing opinions on Danny as well as Stephenson.
                                "Don't get caught watchin' the paint dry"

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