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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:

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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.

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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

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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:

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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.

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If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
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Indianapolis Star

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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

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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.

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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

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Rule #11

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Bird press conference

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  • #91
    Re: Bird press conference

    Deron is all your chips to the middle kind of move, if it don't work out, well you've shot your wad. I see what they are doing, build something with some longevity. Deron worries me honestly, does he get paid and still bring or does he start to embezzle the money? I'm not saying he will, but if he did, well hope we all enjoyed this year.

    Its hard to see the big picture, honestly, Deron isn't the last big time free agent that you have to have that will show up. He's just not.

    I'm with Shade, pay Nash a DWest type contract, they'd be contenders next year, imo, if keeping Roy and Hill in the process.

    Comment


    • #92
      Re: Bird press conference

      Originally posted by vnzla81 View Post
      What was the date when we needed to meet the minimum requirements?
      So anybody here knows the date were the Pacers needed to meet the minimum salary? please....
      @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

      Comment


      • #93
        Re: Bird press conference

        Originally posted by vnzla81 View Post
        So anybody here knows the date were the Pacers needed to meet the minimum salary? please....
        end of the season. that is when all salary cap stuff is done.

        Comment


        • #94
          Re: Bird press conference

          Originally posted by Ace E.Anderson View Post
          Everyone seems to be able to identify what our true needs are... so I wonder whether or not Bird sees the same things that we see.

          Bottom line: Yes Growth from within is important, but an upgrade in talent is just as important if not more so.
          Obviously Bird understands this, or he wouldn't have replaced Tyler with David West as our starting power forward. Maybe you guys should wait until the offseason after he hasn't just been named Executive of the Year before you decide that he's clueless going into the offseason. Bird's resolute confidence has propelled him past his competitors throughout his entire career. Some of y'all are getting tricked by his p-p-poker face.
          You Got The Tony!!!!!!

          Comment


          • #95
            Re: Bird press conference

            Originally posted by xIndyFan View Post
            end of the season. that is when all salary cap stuff is done.
            So this means that we didn't need Foster's salary to meet the league minimum and it actually hurt us when we wanted to acquire another player (probably Kaman) interesting....

            Thanks by the way.
            @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

            Comment


            • #96
              Re: Bird press conference

              Originally posted by vnzla81 View Post
              How the Pacers are going to be happy to pay 3mil for a guy not to play? What kind of thinking is that?
              The vast majority of people paid by PS&E don't play in the games. Coaches, trainers, support staff, front office personnel, marketing guys, ushers, vendors. Hell, Boomer, the freaking mascot, makes over 1 million a year. Is that wasted money too?

              *****EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that the $1 million Boomer salary figure I mentioned above is completely, totally wrong. Sincere apologies, someone was obviously mistaken or "yanking my chain." Nothing to see here, move along.*****

              There is value that can be brought to a team other than being on the court. In this case Foster was mentoring, practicing with players, traveling with the team (most of the season anyway). It sounds like the front office feels they got that value.

              And finally, and perhaps most importantly, as mentioned earlier in this thread, we were under the minimum salary anyway at the time of the signing, which I'd forgotten. Foster therefore did not really *cost* us 3 million. The only people who missed out on that $ were the other players on the team that would have received that additional salary, per NBA rules. So this is mostly free money we're talking about in terms of the team payroll.

              EDIT: Did not realize this calculation happened at the end of the year. That still doesn't discount the other stuff I've said here.

              I really don't see why you guys are so stuck on this, and why you're so insistent to call Jeff Foster being paid $3 million for one final season a "blunder." Yeah he retired before the playoffs, which is too bad, but this wasn't some huge terrible error, give me a break.
              Last edited by rabid; 05-31-2012, 07:41 PM.

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              • #97
                Re: Bird press conference

                I'm pretty sure Boomer doesn't make a mil and as I explained before signing Foster didn't have anything to do with meeting the minimum requirements because as you know we got Barbosa and Fez.
                @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

                Comment


                • #98
                  Re: Bird press conference

                  Originally posted by vnzla81 View Post
                  I'm pretty sure Boomer doesn't make a mil and as I explained before signing Foster didn't have anything to do with meeting the minimum requirements because as you know we got Barbosa and Fez.
                  I was specifically told in 2005 by multiple ppl at PS&E that Boomer made that much. You'd be amazed how much some of the mascots make. It's a really tough and intense job when you think about it, not anyone can do it.

                  *****EDIT: It has been brought to my attention that the $1 million Boomer salary figure I mentioned above is completely, totally wrong. Sincere apologies, someone was obviously mistaken or "yanking my chain." Nothing to see here, move along.*****
                  Last edited by rabid; 05-31-2012, 07:41 PM.

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                  • #99
                    Re: Bird press conference

                    Originally posted by vnzla81 View Post
                    I'm pretty sure Boomer doesn't make a mil and as I explained before signing Foster didn't have anything to do with meeting the minimum requirements because as you know we got Barbosa and Fez.
                    Wouldn't have gotten Fez if Foster hadn't retired. And I don't recall any calculations showing that the 3 mil for Foster was what kept us out of the running for Kaman.

                    You're to the point where you are making a mountain out of a molehill. Again, Foster's retirement was not a win because we took a risk on him, but it wasn't a gamble that broke the bank or even made a difference in what the FO could do with this year's roster.
                    BillS

                    A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
                    Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...

                    Comment


                    • Re: Bird press conference

                      Originally posted by PR07 View Post

                      Also, I don't think it's fair to play Monday Morning Quarterback and say the re-signing of Jeff Foster was a mistake. At the time, it clearly wasn't. Even with his balky back, the Pacers were likely saving Foster for the playoffs where we could've sorely used him, and it's not like there weren't a handful of suitors aiming for his services.


                      I'm glad you don't feel like Mr Bird should be scrutinized by others who feel the re-signing of Foster was a mistake. I'm of the other belief it was a grevious mistake/blunder/error. I stated so at the time too.

                      YES, Foster was sorely, pun intended, missed in the playoffs. I would have loved to have had Foster available for the playoffs. I'd liked to have had a TRUE b/u Center to have b/u Foster all season long and for the playoffs as well. But alas, Mr. Bird didn't feel it was necessary as Lou, and a injured Pendergraph could handle the position of being Foster's b/u. I never quite understood the logic of having an injured player to b/u an injured player, but apparently Mr. Bird didn't see that as a problem.

                      As far as Foster having suitors, I'm sure any possible suitor is quite pleased they didn't pay for the services Foster gave the Pacers.

                      As for being a Monday Morning Qtrback, some saw what this was from the git go same as the 12.6 mil 2 year re-signing of Foster who played a whopping 16-17 games the 1st year, 09-010, of that new contract. Nothing like compounding one's mistake with doing the same mistake again. Makes me wonder if Foster hadn't retired if Bird wouldn't have gone for a hat trick.

                      As I stated in my previous post in this thread, with all honesty, I'm looking forward to seeing what Bird will do this off season. Hopefully, he will pluck another gem like DWest for the coming season. No one is looking more forward to next season than I am!!!

                      Comment


                      • Re: Bird press conference

                        Originally posted by pacergod2 View Post
                        This off-season could really do in Miami. If they make it through a long Finals appearance, there is USA Basketball as well. The short season that will end late, and goes right into Olympics and then starts on time next year will really impact their health IMO. They could be looking at either having multiple nagging injuries to their superstars or come out of the gates really slow and have to work harder to get through the playoffs next year.
                        i like your thinking. it does make quite a bit of sense.

                        Comment


                        • Re: Bird press conference

                          Originally posted by wseward View Post
                          I bet Bird knows more than you.... there is a reason why we have kept JOB around.
                          Yes, the logic is infallible. JOB, Tyler, Lance...it's always just a matter of time till you all see. Diener, Watson, KRush...just hang in there.


                          Bobby Knight syndrome - people love a guy so much that even his mistakes are part of a plan you just don't understand. IU fans used to say that he had them lose on purpose just to teach them lessons...oh, except for the undefeated team. I guess that team taught him the errors of his ways.
                          Last edited by Naptown_Seth; 05-30-2012, 06:25 PM.

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                          • Re: Bird press conference

                            Resigning Jeff WAS a mistake. He didn't do anything to earn the money, as far as I know.

                            It was, however, a very tiny mistake since it carried no clear consequences or impact, either positively or negatively, toward the product on the floor. We still had money to sign others, we still had roster spots, and it is certainly not clear that we were relying on Jeff to any extent. It was a risk that didn't pan out. Small risk / possible significant reward / actual non-event.
                            The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

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                            • Re: Bird press conference

                              Originally posted by Justin Tyme View Post
                              I'm of the other belief it was a grevious mistake/blunder/error.
                              Grevious??? Really??

                              grevious

                              1 - causing or characterized by severe pain, suffering, or sorrow
                              grievous wound
                              2 - oppressive, onerous
                              3 - serious, grave



                              Sigh.

                              One more time.

                              We only paid him $3 million, he wasn't taking anyone else's roster spot, we had roster spots and $ left over after signing him that we didn't use, and his impact on the cap was basically nonexistent - up until we signed Fez and Barbosa we weren't even at the minimum salary number even WITH his salary. Those are all facts.

                              We had quite a bit of $$ to go and sign another backup big even AFTER we signed Foster. We chose not to, until we got Fez at least. Lou Amundson ended up getting most of the minutes Foster would have gotten.

                              If your argument is that the front office screwed up by not having another better backup big other than Lou / Pendergraph / Fez in case Foster couldn't play, then fine, I don't necessarily agree but I can see the logic.

                              But saying that Jeff's $3-million salary that didn't even put us over the league minimum salary limit was somehow the reason we didn't end up with Kaman or some other great center is just factually wrong.

                              It's non-issue, seriously. Can we please move on?

                              Comment


                              • Re: Bird press conference

                                Originally posted by Naptown_Seth View Post
                                Yes, the logic is infallible. JOB, Tyler, Lance...it's always just a matter of time till you all see. Diener, Watson, KRush...just hang in there.


                                Bobby Knight syndrome - people love a guy so much that even his mistakes are part of a plan you just don't understand. IU fans used to say that he had them lose on purpose just to teach them lessons...oh, except for the undefeated team. I guess that team taught him the errors of his ways.
                                I think both of the extremes are ridiculous. It seems like there is a group that thinks he can do no wrong, and another group that wants to "nail" him for everything. Of all the things to focus on this season, people are getting bent out of shape about Jeff Foster??? Really???

                                Comment

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