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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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Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

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  • Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

    http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/7519970/time-change


    It's too long to quote the whole thing, and he makes a lot of other interesting observations. But I love his idea for next season's schedule.

    Originally posted by Bill Simmons

    You're not going to believe this, but I spent waaaaaaaaaaay too much time trying to figure out something that will never actually happen. And here's the reality: It would be too radical for the NBA to launch on Christmas every year. At least right away. Which is why I'm offering the following plan …
    • Starting next season, the NBA launches six days after Black Friday (this year: November 30, 2012) with a Thursday-night doubleheader on TNT. That way, the NBA avoids the baseball playoffs, college football's regular season and 75 percent of the NFL's regular season, drawing maximum eyeballs for opening week and using that next month to build up the storylines for Christmas Day.

    • We play a 78-game regular season over the next 24 weeks, ending in mid-May (for 2012-13: Tuesday, May 14).

    • To make up the revenue from those lost games, we launch my Entertaining as Hell Tournament — the top seven seeds in each conference make the playoffs, then the other 16 teams play a single-elimination tournament to "win" the no. 8 seeds. This would discourage tanking for lottery picks, reward late-bloomer teams and generate extra interest because, again, this tournament would be entertaining as hell. All 14 games would be televised — eight in Round 1, four in Round 2, then a doubleheader final at Madison Square Garden to decide the no. 8 seeds — over a week as the other 14 playoff teams regrouped and rested up.

    • The EAH tournament runs for eight days (for 2012-13: May 16 through May 22), with the actual NBA playoffs starting on Saturday like always … only this time, it launches on Memorial Day weekend (for 2012-13: May 26).

    • The playoffs run for eight-plus weeks through June and July, allowing the NBA to own the second half of June, July Fourth weekend and that super-dead sports week during baseball's All-Star break. Its only competition over that time: midseason baseball, Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the Stanley Cup finals and summer movies.

    • The Finals finishes one week after mid-July (for 2012-13: Game 7 of the Finals would be Tuesday, July 24); the NBA draft happens the following Tuesday (for 2012-13: July 31); then the free agent signing period kicks off one week later (for 2012-13: August 7).


    Would the NBA — yes, the same league that's been notoriously afraid to take ANY chances over the past decade or so — ever shake things up that drastically? Probably not, although I wouldn't be shocked if they moved 2012's opening night to mid-November, then stretched the 2013 Finals through June — if only to give the league's superstars two extra weeks of rest after subjecting them to a shortened schedule and the Olympics just a month later. Regardless, that Christmas launch gave the 2011-12 season a little extra juice; it shouldn't be considered a fluke.

    Of course, that wasn't the only reason this season has been so compelling. What are some of the other factors? You'll have to wait until Part 2 (coming Tuesday).

  • #2
    Re: Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

    I read this yesterday, and my first inclination is to tell Simmons that the NBA's fiscal year goes from July1-June 30. They have to have the season done by June 30 for the league's records to be closed and reporting to be done, etc. I know they could move the date, but that would be a very big undertaking, but if the benefits outweighed the work to make that possible, they could do it, but there's a reason you hardly ever see companies change their fiscal year.
    "Your course, your path, is not going to be like mine," West says. "Everybody is not called to be a multimillionaire. Everybody's not called to be the president. Whatever your best work is, you do it. Do it well. … You cease your own greatness when you aspire to be someone else."

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

      i like the idea...but it won't happen

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

        So, you could make the Playoffs as the 8th seed while still getting a lottery pick?
        Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

          Originally posted by CableKC View Post
          So, you could make the Playoffs as the 8th seed while still getting a lottery pick?
          only nonplayoff teams are included in the draft lottery. the playoff team with the worst record gets the 15th pick.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

            I love the idea of a play-in for the #8 seed.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

              I have no problem starting on Christmas day or sometime just before then, but I would rather (and since this is all fantasy anyway) teams play a 60 game schedule - start and finish it whenever you want, but how long would it take to play a 60 game schedule and no team ever plays any back to back games. That is what I would be in favor of. (also would like the schedule to be more consistant so fans know the Pacers play every Friday night no matter what - for example)

              The quality of play would skyrocket

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

                Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
                I have no problem starting on Christmas day or sometime just before then, but I would rather (and since this is all fantasy anyway) teams play a 60 game schedule - start and finish it whenever you want, but how long would it take to play a 60 game schedule and no team ever plays any back to back games. That is what I would be in favor of. (also would like the schedule to be more consistant so fans know the Pacers play every Friday night no matter what - for example)

                The quality of play would skyrocket
                Agreed, but it won't happen because of $$$.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

                  Please do not confuse Bill Simmon's ability to write well with his ability to come up with good ideas. He can take any idea and make it sound like a good idea with this writing.

                  This idea is a stupid one.

                  Let me ask you, when was the last time you watched the play in game for the NCAA's. That is not a major TV draw.
                  You can't get champagne from a garden hose.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

                    Originally posted by graphic-er View Post
                    Please do not confuse Bill Simmon's ability to write well with his ability to come up with good ideas. He can take any idea and make it sound like a good idea with this writing.

                    This idea is a stupid one.

                    Let me ask you, when was the last time you watched the play in game for the NCAA's. That is not a major TV draw.
                    Who has the bigger following:

                    A mediocre NBA team or the winner of the SWAC?

                    Let me ask you, is an apple better than an orange?
                    "I had to take her down like Chris Brown."

                    -Lance Stephenson

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

                      Originally posted by graphic-er View Post
                      Please do not confuse Bill Simmon's ability to write well with his ability to come up with good ideas. He can take any idea and make it sound like a good idea with this writing.

                      This idea is a stupid one.

                      Let me ask you, when was the last time you watched the play in game for the NCAA's. That is not a major TV draw.
                      WTF are you talking about?? The line for Wizards-Warriors would be around the block, and tickets to Kings-Bucks would be unobtainable.
                      (do any of my posts really require green at this point, its the default color by definition)


                      I love that he calls it the EAH tourney, but that it would feature nearly every non-entertaining team playing the lowest quality of the sport imaginable at the professional level.


                      And teams won't tank? Of course they would tank. They'd just keep tanking for that "entertaining" one game tourney loss and get on with winning the draft lottery.



                      Bill's major mistake here is to think that you can somehow manage out the dull portion of a season. You can't. You need the CONTRAST. What is March without NCAA December? Heck, what is the conference season without the games before conference play?

                      The NCAA doesn't just say "why not skip all the boring crap and just go right to the tourney, with 10 other mini-tourneys to see who gets in that tourney, and...", or actually they do, it's call the boring parts of the season.

                      June baseball leads to Sept baseball, just like pre-Thanksgiving NFL leads to post-Thanksgiving NFL.



                      It reminds me of grumpy old men or anyone that doesn't understand basketball that like to say "the NBA is only interesting for the final 2 minutes"...and they usually don't say this after a games like the last 2 IND vs ORL games.

                      Without the build-up there is no such thing as an exciting finish.
                      Last edited by Naptown_Seth; 01-31-2012, 02:05 PM.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

                        A mediocre NBA team or the winner of the SWAC?
                        Why don't we ask the 5,000 home town fans even willing to show up to a late-season NBA game for a bad team. I bet a SWAC team can pull 5000 fans to a team good enough to be in the play-in game at least.

                        At best the NBA version would be a first year curiosity and then people would realize what Simmons had tricked them into watching. There is a reason people like the playoffs - it involves GOOD teams playing GOOD basketball usually.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

                          Originally posted by Naptown_Seth View Post
                          WTF are you talking about?? The line for Wizards-Warriors would be around the block, and tickets to Kings-Bucks would be unobtainable.
                          (do any of my posts really require green at this point, its the default color by definition)
                          Just to clarify, you wouldn't have any East vs. West games in the EAH tournament. All the remaining East teams would play each other for the East's 8 seed, and ditto for the West. I realize this has nothing to do with the point you were making, but thought I'd point that out anyway.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

                            Originally posted by Naptown_Seth View Post
                            Why don't we ask the 5,000 home town fans even willing to show up to a late-season NBA game for a bad team. I bet a SWAC team can pull 5000 fans to a team good enough to be in the play-in game at least.

                            At best the NBA version would be a first year curiosity and then people would realize what Simmons had tricked them into watching. There is a reason people like the playoffs - it involves GOOD teams playing GOOD basketball usually.
                            Sure in the East it would be bad teams. But look at the West. There are always some really good teams fighting for the 8th spot. Right now the Lakers, Houston, San Antonio, Portland and Memphis are all right around the 8th spot. A play in game would pull in a good draw there.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Bill Simmons' 1st Half NBA Review

                              Something I would like to see is fewer interconference games, and a higher percentage of divisional games. Make an effort to create rich rivalries within divisions. Just look at most of the big NBA rivalries Lakers-Celtics or Pacers-Knicks in the 90s. They tend to be just kind of random, and most are short lived. I would like to see rivalries survive down years,and that isn't gong to happen with the current scheduling.

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