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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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Taj Smith's journey from Newark to the NFL

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  • Taj Smith's journey from Newark to the NFL

    http://belleville.patch.com/articles...k-to-the-nfl-6

    Taj Smith's Journey from Newark to the NFL
    A Twisting Path to the Pros for Colts Player

    Taj Smith is revisiting stops along his personal timeline, a rough ride through a painful past that involved burying two older brothers and a soul-shaking murder that left him stained with the cold blood of an acquaintance.

    As he talks about his troubled past during a ride through his native New Jersey, Smith pauses often, exhales deeply and shakes his head slowly, decisively.

    "Everyday I think about everything I've been through," said the 27-year-old Indianapolis Colts wide receiver. "I don't ever want to go back to that."

    Mindful of his past, Smith offers inspiration to his home city of Newark, a city of urban blight. While waiting for the National Football League to solve its ongoing labor dispute, the Weequahic High School product provided nearly 400 youngsters the opportunity he craved when he was getting into trouble during his formative years, combining football and life skills training with the chance to meet pro players at the Taj Smith Never Give Up Clinic held July 16 at his alma mater's Untermann Field.

    Last Friday, Smith drove around North Jersey personally thanking the Clinic sponsors, including Applebee's in Union Township, where he retraced the roots of the tumultuous past he overcame over a bite to eat.

    A Haunting Past

    Before becoming a professional athlete, Smith feared he would become a statistic in an area that his father, Victor Wilson, compared to the movie "New Jack City." His upbringing began in a two-bedroom apartment on 19th Street in Newark, where he and his seven siblings (four brothers, three sisters) bundled together, sleeping four to a bed in their room.

    Outside, gunshots provided a omnipresent soundtrack to daily life, filling the air so frequently Smith vividly recalled all the times he fell to the floor out of harm's way. One time in particular, an uncle who dealt drugs was murdered on 19th Street while Smith's parents shielded their children from any potential crossfire coming into their home.

    Drugs were ever-present in Taj's childhood – on street corners and even in Smith's home. Both of his parents used and he recalled times he urinated in balloons to help his father pass drug tests for pending job opportunities.

    "That was part of my past, being caught up in a vicious cycle and overcoming that. Despite all of that, I stayed with my kids," said Wilson, who has been clean since 1995 and maintains a close relationship with Smith.

    Eventually, Smith and his family moved to the Prince Street, where the 10-year-old's indoctrination to those "projects," as he referred to the area, included him fighting nine other boys while his older brothers watched. He tried to stifle his feelings, but ultimately became a product of his violent environment.

    For years, loyalty led Smith to swinging his fists in his friends' fights. It was a matter of survival on the streets, where he said, "It wasn't me starting stuff. It was just me helping my friends."

    At the start of his junior year at Weequahic, however, Smith jumped into a fight started by another friend and "hurt the guy real bad." Having his buddy's back became cause for incarceration after he broke his classmate's eye socket, jaw and nose.

    "I'm sitting in class. Everybody gets up, I get up and the teacher tells me to sit down," Smith recalled, "locks the door, and detectives come in and tell me I (am) charged with aggravated assault."

    Getting Out of Newark

    After two weeks in a juvenile detention center, Smith found himself expelled from Weequahic and desperately seeking redemption. Enter Ian Scott, a consultant at Newark's Gateway Academy, an alternative school formed as a partnership between the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission and Newark Public Schools that helped rehabilitate troubled students.

    "He was considered an aggressive kid even though he was as quiet as a church mouse," recalled Scott, who has since served as a mentoring role to Smith. "You would never know or you would never think that."

    For all of his aggression, Scott described a young Smith as almost meek upon their first meeting, with glasses, short dreadlocks and sharing his love of football and writing poetry only after being asked.

    Knowing this, Scott called the coaches at Weequahic and West Side high schools, eventually getting Smith back onto the football team at his old school after the then-principal – who said she was retiring that year mainly because of Smith and his older brothers – made it clear that while he could play, he could not dress or even take part in halftime meetings inside the school.

    Not being able to dress with his teammates paled compared to what Smith encountered while walking home with a cluster of classmates. They traveled together because there was safety in numbers. Or so they thought. In an alley near Arts High School, Smith, who was a high school junior at the time, said an armed man stopped them and demanded they hand over everything they had.

    Everyone but Smith scattered.

    "If you're going to shoot me," Smith thought then, "you're going to shoot me in my face not in my back."

    Seconds later, the man opened fire on an acquaintance Smith only remembers as "Michael," the blood from the gunshot splattering on to Smith's face and clothes. He does not recall the details of the shooting, only remembering the blood on his skin and the sheer sense of panic as he sprinted to a local gas station to wash up before heading up Irvine Turner Boulevard to catch the No. 99 bus home.

    "I jumped in the shower, got in bed and started crying," said Smith, shaking his head and exhaling loudly. "I thought, 'That could have been me.'"

    Ever mindful of this experience, Smith was inspired to get better grades and earned his way back into Weequahic after a year of matriculation at Gateway, becoming a star defensive end despite his wiry 6-foot-1, 180-pound frame.

    Deep in his heart, Smith hoped his efforts would punch his ticket out of the projects, but his grades and lack of game film left him without a quality college option. And so he worked screening T-shirts for months after graduation, making what he called "good money" and helping his family before going back to visit his old high school midway through the 2002-03 school year.

    Luckily, that was the one year an English teacher named Reggie Beard spent at Weequahic. Although Beard estimates he may have spent 72 hours with Smith, their relationship proved impactful. Smith's new friend knew Jeff Chudy, the head football coach at Bakersfield College, a California junior college, and helped Smith find a way to get away.

    "I told him about the responsibilities of being a college student," said Beard. "I always believe in giving guys the benefit of the doubt. ... You can see that he wanted to get the hell out of Newark."

    Tragedy Strikes Back Home

    In his first year 3,000 miles from home, Smith became a cornerback at Bakersfield, but a strained hamstring sidelined before a bruised ego over lack of playing time got him kicked off the team. The following fall, he switched to wide receiver but thought of quitting after not seeing the field his first two games. But then, in the third game, he scored two touchdowns and was well on his way to becoming a Division I prospect.

    During his college days, Smith spoke to his older brother Al-Mutakabbir daily. However, his brother, a drug dealer in Atlantic City, didn't pick up the other end for two days.

    Taj Smith hoped against hope his brother was behind bars, but learned the worst from a Bakersfield assistant coach: Al-Mutakabbir Smith was found burned to death in an alley Oct. 21, 2004, after his roommate allegedly tied a black plastic bag over the 22-year-old's head before setting him on fire.


    Immediately, Taj Smith took a flight home, went into the bathroom of his family's apartment, punched a wall and the tears started flowing. The case regarding his brother's death is still pending, leaving Smith to continue to wistfully ask: "How could anybody be so cruel to somebody?"

    "I'd never really seen Taj cry before," said Bernadine Smith, Taj's mother. "He was in the bathroom and I was in the bathroom with him and he punched a wall."

    "It was shocking," said Epiphany Smith, one of Taj's three younger sisters. "It was a whole bunch of 'Why did this happen?' I can't even begin to tell you how our family was impacted by it."

    Soon after Al-Mutakabbir Smith's funeral, some of Taj Smith's old, angry feelings he tried to stifle began surging back, making him rethink running a comeback route to Bakersfield.

    Everyone in his inner circle convinced him going west again was his best and only move. Scott stepped in and offered a sobering reminder of life in his hometown.

    "We love you and enjoy you being here, but there's nothing good here," Scott recalled telling Taj Smith. "I want you to go and finish what you started. The other guys around here, they're dying everyday."

    Added Epiphany Smith, who eventually followed Taj's lead and left Newark to study business at Westwood College in Georgia: "He was going good. We were all affected by it, but we didn't want him to stay home and get into more trouble."

    A couple of weeks later, Smith listened to reason and returned to California, breaking his old pattern and running a new one.

    "I was to a point where I was trying to plan to get the guy back," said Smith. "But when reality set in, I knew that nothing I would have did could bring (Al-Mutakabbir) back, and in all actuality, something could have happened to me in the process by trying to get the guy back. I didn't want my mother to lose another child."

    Another Murder Amid Gridiron Heartache

    A couple of weeks later, Smith went back west. He learned sign language from a professor named DeAnn Sampley, who took him and other students to Romania so they could work with children in hospitals and orphanages.

    And he graduated in December 2006, with a 3.8 grade point average that helped him earn an academic and athletic scholarship to Syracuse University; Rutgers had also recruited him, but the school was too close to home, Smith said.

    After two years of playing for the Orange and earning his degree in special education, Smith earned a free-agent tryout with the Green Bay Packers. They cut him, but the Indianapolis Colts signed him to their practice squad Sept. 23, 2008.

    Football dealt him with some heartache, too, such as the three hours in 2009 when Smith was called up to the main roster before being relegated back to the practice squad. But no 250-pound linebacker could have blindsided him the way a call from home did Nov. 17, 2009.

    On the other end of the line, Bernadine Smith was sobbing: Fuquan Wilson, Taj Smith's 30-year-old brother, shot fatally himself as police entered his hotel room in Virginia after Wilson slashed his brother-in-law's throat and shot him in the head following an argument.

    "That's what they say happened," Smith said solemnly. "Gotta roll with that."

    Now the oldest of his six surviving siblings, Smith shook his head again, his dreadlocks flying about as though he just got his bell rung.

    "Why'd you do it? Why'd you do it fool?" he asked softly, sadly.

    For comfort, Smith developed a bottle-a-day vodka habit. He left open containers in his car, did shots before practice and even practiced under the influence. No one was any the wiser until New Year's Day 2010, when he was arrested on a DUI charge.

    "They could have let me go, but obviously they found something in me that they wanted to keep me," said Smith, who kicked the habit for good after his arrest. "I told everybody I apologized. I was just going through a lot at that time and they understood it."

    Second Chances

    After joining the Colts at Super Bowl 44 (he did not play), a refocused Smith impressed during training camp that summer. He said head coach Jim Caldwell told him he would have earned a roster spot, but he tore his hamstring on the last play of the last practice prior to the last preseason game.

    Not long after, the Colts cut him loose. Another obstacle, sure, but also another second chance came his way when Indianapolis resigned him and promoted him to the active roster on Nov. 30 – five days before his current team was playing the squad he rooted for with his father, the Dallas Cowboys.

    Beforehand, Smith told everyone within earshot he would block a punt. Late in the third quarter, he proved his clairvoyance, deflecting the kick and scooping it up for his first professional touchdown.

    "Taj has been through a lot," said Victor Wilson. "His camp couldn't have had a better title, Never Give Up. It talks about his life. Taj's got his head on straight. It's truly a blessing to be his father."

    Said Bernadine Smith: "I thank God that he is the strong person he is today because it made him into the man he is today. He wants to see kids not go through the things he did."

    Nearly 400 kids saw Taj Smith in the same light at his clinic earlier this month, where he mentored youngsters on everything from running pass patterns to dreaming big, studying hard and staying in school.

    "I'm just trying to follow what he did and follow in his footsteps," said Daveon Washington, a former wide receiver at Malcolm X. Shabazz High School who graduated in June.

    Taj Smith will see those kids again when he comes back home after seeking a more prominent role than serving as the special-teams standout he was last winter. With the NFL finally ending its lockout, he can return again to the national platform he has used to inspire kids across the Newark.

    "I'm just ready to go back," Smith said. "Not just because of money, but because I want to prove myself. I'm not where I want to be. I've just got to keep fighting."
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