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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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Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

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  • #16
    Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

    Originally posted by Shade View Post
    Ok so I didn't feel like writing more, I meant to say DJ because he was one of the divas last year and from this year I would say West, happy now?
    @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

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    • #17
      Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

      Originally posted by Shade View Post
      West is the last player I would suspect at causing chemistry issues.
      He seems to be frustrated almost all of the time imo. Likely because no one on this team seems to be able to get him the ball in the places he needs it.
      "The greatest thing you know Comes not from above but below" Danzig

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      • #18
        Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

        I think it's Danny. I think he got upset when Vogel let him set for 20 minutes when he was red hot the other night. I think it's pretty natural though. Here you've been struggling with your shot all season, and finally you are red hot and the coach lets you set. Then when you come back you've gone cold. That would upset anyone.

        I think it's all on Vogel, because his substitute pattern isn't very good. He needs to keep the times down, because Danny was averaging 36 minutes a game there for about 9 games in a row, and he got gased and started slacking off which effected the team.

        Vogel finally realized the problem and 'fixed' it at the wrong time. I don't really think it's anything to worry about. Danny knows Vogel is a rookie and he's not the type to stay mad long. Vogel is having growing pains is all.

        As far as the whole team being down I think they are just mentally gased. They were all on the same page there for a while and paying attention and playing great, but you can't stay up mentally for the whole season.

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        • #19
          Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

          GRANGER

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          • #20
            Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

            Originally posted by Justin Tyme View Post
            GRANGER
            Huh? Now why would it be him?
            You can't get champagne from a garden hose.

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            • #21
              Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

              Originally posted by Will Galen View Post
              I think it's Danny. . .
              Originally posted by Justin Tyme View Post
              GRANGER
              if danny's out for a week, then we will get a chance to see if it's danny or not.

              don't think it's danny. i think it's casue the pacers are young and tired. which makes their collective BBIQ go down. plus the league is catching up with what the pacers do. plus george hill is hurt. plus the lack of size at the 1 and the 4.

              mostly i think the players just have to start playing better.

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              • #22
                Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

                Originally posted by rexnom View Post
                I'm intrigued by the theory. Is it Tyler? He's the only one that doesn't seem to be part of gang at times.
                I'm sure he's plays a part in it, but I think its West or Danny they both are the outspoken leaders and at times have played badly. Hard to get on others when you have some flaws as well.

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                • #23
                  Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

                  I honestly think we'll be fine eventually.

                  Get Danny and especially Hill healthy. Give one of the best coaching staffs in the league time to fully adjust to the X's and O's side of our problems. Let the increased depth of a healthy top 7 lower the minutes of our players and contribute towards getting more wind in our sales.

                  I think as those all start to fall into place, we'll start winning more than we lose again; I really do.

                  The question is when. Well, last I knew we should have both of those guys back no later than the end of the month/start of March, so I'm just going to try my best to wait it out until after the All-Star break. I think next month will exorcise these demons and get this 'train' back on the right 'track'.

                  Just hold on until we get through these next couple of week or so; I don't think the sky is falling.

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                  • #24
                    Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

                    Originally posted by Peck View Post
                    I will save my theory of a player I think may be the one breaking the chemistry for later when I am not so pessimistic (It's probably not who you think) *Hint it's not Lance*.
                    Hope you drop it on us soon since you got all of our interests peaked.

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                    • #25
                      Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

                      I hope it's not any one player. It's fine for us fans to point fingers and play the blame game, but when players on the team start pointing fingers.......game over.
                      "Just look at the flowers ........ BANG" - Carol "The Walking Dead"

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                      • #26
                        Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

                        I've always been worried that there's a huge leadership void on this team that extended beyond the roster and into the coaching staff. I was hoping Brian Shaw and David West might fix this. Now I'm again worried that the only true leader involved with this team is the man who put it all together.
                        "A man with no belly has no appetite for life."

                        - Salman Rushdie

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                        • #27
                          Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

                          Originally posted by Hicks View Post
                          I honestly think we'll be fine eventually.

                          Get Danny and especially Hill healthy. Give one of the best coaching staffs in the league time to fully adjust to the X's and O's side of our problems. Let the increased depth of a healthy top 7 lower the minutes of our players and contribute towards getting more wind in our sales.

                          I think as those all start to fall into place, we'll start winning more than we lose again; I really do.

                          The question is when. Well, last I knew we should have both of those guys back no later than the end of the month/start of March, so I'm just going to try my best to wait it out until after the All-Star break. I think next month will exorcise these demons and get this 'train' back on the right 'track'.

                          Just hold on until we get through these next couple of week or so; I don't think the sky is falling.
                          You know, I'm starting to think Hill really is an issue.

                          At first I didn't, because the bench was playing terrible before Hill was injured, and has actually been quite a bit better as of late. The starters seemed to be the problem.

                          But Hill as an individual is a different animal. He's like a sixth starter. PG has a lot of pressure on him, and it used to be that when he played poorly, Hill would just come in, and take the pressure off of him. Lance has put in a lot of effort and energy, but he can't defend or make shots like Hill can, so a lot more pressure is on PG.

                          edit: I think Vogel is a clear leader as a coach. From players saying they'd run through a brick wall for him, and from the adjustments in the third quarter. That said, he's a first year coach, and deserves a bit of leeway and time to learn how to deal with things. Two weeks ago, we were discussing him possibly being COY.

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                          • #28
                            Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

                            I wasn't quick to decide that I thought I was watching a contender out on the floor, so I'm sure as hell not going to rush to the lifeboats of this allegedly sinking ship now, either. Fans can be so... fussy.

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                            • #29
                              Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

                              Well, since the other night Quinn mentioned West wanting the ball more and saying something after a game, then I'll just extrapolate from there and guess West is who Peck is thinking of.

                              When Quinn said it I took it to be a positive thing because I got the feeling he felt the players needed to utilize West more himself.... But maybe it grew from that... and maybe the older vet isn't in the mood for the younger players' ideas.... and the younger guys take it more as wanting him some more 'me' than thinking of the team.

                              But I'm just guessing....
                              Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.

                              ------

                              "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork."

                              -John Wooden

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                              • #30
                                Re: Odd Thoughts: Cleveland Rocks....

                                Congrats, Peck.

                                I do believe you may have started a witch hunt.

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