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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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Wilbon, Wash Post: Jermaine hit a cop, and his troubles are only beginning; sentences too light

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  • Wilbon, Wash Post: Jermaine hit a cop, and his troubles are only beginning; sentences too light

    linked through hoopshype--

    sorry no url

    Justice Is Swift, Sure, But Perhaps Too Light

    By Michael Wilbon
    Monday, November 22, 2004; Page D01

    Ron Artest wanted some time off to promote his new CD, to try to help his girl group go platinum, and now he's got it. Artest has the month he had asked for, the month after that, the month after that and every month for the rest of this season. For charging into the stands in Detroit on Friday night and turning what could have been only an on-court scuffle into a riot, Artest was hit with a rest-of-the-season suspension by NBA Commissioner David Stern that is not only just but necessary.

    It's too bad Stern stopped at 30 games for Artest's Indiana teammate Stephen Jackson, who should have been kicked out for the rest of the season, too. Whatever Artest got, Jackson should have received -- plus one game. Jackson didn't get hit in the face with a cup and he wasn't provoked when he went into the stands. And when Jackson got there, he didn't try to restrain Artest. He didn't seek to make peace or restore order. Jackson went in swinging his fists. Artest, while his defense for going into the stands is weak, at least has one.




    Jackson has no defense and probably got off comparatively lightly, as did Jermaine O'Neal, whose most egregious work might not have been captured on videotape. O'Neal, according to sources familiar with the ongoing criminal proceedings in suburban Detroit, is being investigated for allegedly having hit a police officer during the brawl. So just because the NBA gave O'Neal 25 games doesn't mean that's all he might get for his role in the melee.

    But Artest gets the stiffest penalty because he has a history of being at the center of trouble. While his foul on Ben Wallace, which precipitated the whole thing, was a ticky-tack hack unworthy of being called flagrant, the fact is Wallace overreacted because it was Artest who fouled him, because everywhere Artest has been the last few seasons he has brought trouble with him. Remember when Michael Jordan's second comeback was delayed for a couple of months? It was because his ribs had been injured by Artest in a summer pickup game. While he has been a troubled soul since childhood and acknowledged his need for counseling, he has also acted willfully as a grown man. In effect, Artest is simply reaping what he has sown.

    Stern admitted as much when he said during an appropriately grim news conference at Madison Square Garden last night, "I did not strike from my mind the fact that Ron Artest has been previously suspended for the loss of self-control."

    Artest's rest-of-the-season suspension is essentially a third-strike punishment, or in Artest's case, a fifth strike. By now, everybody knows Artest charged into the stands and grabbed the wrong guy. He ran right past the person who had hit him with the cup, underscoring the point that players cannot run into the stands. That was what Stern had to hammer home with his suspensions and in his first public comments last evening. While 50 games might have been more appropriately punitive for Jackson and O'Neal, Stern probably did enough to back up his contention that "we cannot tolerate a repetition of what occurred Friday night in Detroit. Players cannot lose control and go into the stands."

    The commissioner essentially issued a warning when asked about the possibility of another such brawl happening, he said, "Whatever doubt there was [among players], the line is drawn and my guess is it won't happen again." And he followed that by saying of fans, "Maybe we have to lose some fans, and that's all right with me."

    And there was the obligatory talk about beefing up security, as if 50 more armed guards could have stopped somebody from throwing beer on a player.

    Stern sounded all the right notes, including when asked about the possibility players will be separated from fans by some sort of barrier. "I would like it not to come to that," he said. "That would be an unacceptable result." He even addressed cutting off beer sales earlier in the games, but given the amount of money the beer companies have invested in the NBA and its television partners, I'll believe that when I see it. Still, cutting off beer sales at halftime would go a long way toward making sitting through a game tolerable.

    But sounding all the right notes and actually repairing what's wrong with his league right now are two different things. It's not just the NBA, of course. Baseball had its chair-throwing, players-in-the-stands incident in Oakland during a key division game. NHL fans are disgusted that they have no season, while more than 200 players have gone off to play in European leagues.

    But the NBA was known, rightfully so, as the fan-friendliest league from the early 1980s through the late 1990s. But along the way, some time after Jordan's second retirement in 1998, it began to sour. No small number of Americans who would describe themselves as NBA fans openly rooted against the U.S. players -- all of them NBA stars -- during the Athens Olympics.

    Stern and his lieutenants are going to have to figure out when this resentment of NBA players started to increase, why it has become so open, and what to do about it. Suspending Artest, O'Neal and Jackson won't begin to address that.

    All Stern has done so far is what he had to do immediately, which is get the aforementioned Pacers away from the court. Even that is problematic for the league's bigger picture. The Eastern Conference, which has been a basketball blight since the Bulls were broken up at the end of the 1998 season, entered the season with only three viable teams: the Pistons, Pacers and Heat. And now the Pacers' season is done.

    That doesn't mean, however, that this episode is over. In fact, this is just the beginning. Prosecutors in Michigan continue their work. Fans who were punched, trampled, soaked in beer, and shoved under chairs are scheduling visits with their lawyers. The NBA season is only three weeks old, yet this brawl and all it exposes guarantees the league is headed for one long winter.
    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!).

  • #2
    Re: Wilbon, Wash Post: Jermaine hit a cop, and his troubles are only beginning; sentences too light

    ACCORDING TO SOURCES


    rumors.
    Ever notice how friendly folks are at a shootin' range??.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Wilbon, Wash Post: Jermaine hit a cop, and his troubles are only beginning; sentences too light

      Originally posted by btowncolt
      I love the rhetoric. None of these people have seemingly had a problem with trafficing guns, smuggling drugs, using drugs, driving under the influence, providing alchohol to minors, raping women, players beating their spouses, not paying child support, and on and and on..........
      That is such a good point, and it's a travesty that it's goint to be mostly ignored league-wide and in the media. Just a ****ing travesty.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Wilbon, Wash Post: Jermaine hit a cop, and his troubles are only beginning; sentences too light

        Originally posted by indygeezer
        ACCORDING TO SOURCES


        rumors.

        Exactly Geez. Believe me, I work with these guys all the time and if a player hit a cop his *** would be in jail right now. What's going on and has been since this started is Stern and the CEO for the Pistons have been trying to cover their *** since it happened. They tried to get by cheap by hiring and using untrained individuals as security. As I stated in another thread the dead give away is look for the individuals who have radios or at least cell phones. Guess what (THEY DON'T) and thats why they couldn't communicate with each other to get someone near the table when this thing started to escalate. Secondly I can also promise you this...Their supposed security people were watching the game instead of doing their job and watching people. Mr. Wilson of the Pistons you should be fired.
        You know how hippos are made out to be sweet and silly, like big cows, but are actually extremely dangerous and can kill you with stunning brutality? The Pacers are the NBA's hippos....Matt Moore CBS Sports....

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Wilbon, Wash Post: Jermaine hit a cop, and his troubles are only beginning; sentences too light

          Why did he include the part about Michael Jordan's ribs being hurt by Artest in a pickup game?

          Kinda stupid to include that info. in this article.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Wilbon, Wash Post: Jermaine hit a cop, and his troubles are only beginning; sentences too light

            Thanks RWB, you've confirmed what I've suspected. I knew with your background I'd hear from you eventually on the security people.
            What I found really funny was the dude with his Mace/pepper spray pulled standing there like Barney Fife.
            Compare the lack of security people mentioned by Slick to the plethora of security at the Pacer games and you can see why it escalated so quickly and took so long to bring this under control.
            Ever notice how friendly folks are at a shootin' range??.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Wilbon, Wash Post: Jermaine hit a cop, and his troubles are only beginning; sentences too light

              Never say anything about O'Neal and a cop but I did see a Pacer get a little rough with a cop and the cop put the pepper spray canister in his face. I wonder if that is the incident.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Wilbon, Wash Post: Jermaine hit a cop, and his troubles are only beginning; sentences too light

                Sorry, double post, I must be ticked.
                [edit=346=1101145516][/edit]
                You know how hippos are made out to be sweet and silly, like big cows, but are actually extremely dangerous and can kill you with stunning brutality? The Pacers are the NBA's hippos....Matt Moore CBS Sports....

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Wilbon, Wash Post: Jermaine hit a cop, and his troubles are only beginning; sentences too light

                  Damn straight Geez. Before Colts camp starts we meet three times with Colts Management to discuss all concerns and how we are going to handle a crisis if it arises. We have our first meeting about this stuff in March and it is important enough that the highest indivdiuals that attend are just below Irsay. Shoot, when the Colts have the popular night practices you would be really surprised to know how many plain clothes people are setting right next to you. And guess what.?.... we ALL carry radios or nextals to keep each other informed on who may be trouble. And you are correct Geez, when you go to Conseco its pretty easy to find or spot a cop. The #1 thing with crowd control is make your presence known. Its not the idea of trying to be heavy handed, but let the person know "You are going to be seen and there'll be consequences. Everyone talks about well it's not the Palace's fault because you can't control a situation like that. WRONG....You DETER people from having the thought before even trying it......Now we get to watch our season go down the drain because Tom Wilson wanted to save the buck$.

                  [edit=346=1101145284][/edit]
                  You know how hippos are made out to be sweet and silly, like big cows, but are actually extremely dangerous and can kill you with stunning brutality? The Pacers are the NBA's hippos....Matt Moore CBS Sports....

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Wilbon, Wash Post: Jermaine hit a cop, and his troubles are only beginning; sentences too light

                    Originally posted by RWB
                    Damn straight Geez. Before Colts camp starts we meet three times with Colts Management to discuss all concerns and how we are going to handle a crisis if it arises. We have our first meeting about this stuff in March and it is important enough that the highest indivdiuals that attend are just below Irsay. Shoot, when the Colts have the popular night practices you would be really surprised to know how many plain clothes people are setting right next to you. And guess what.?.... we ALL carry radios or nextals to keep each other informed on who may be trouble. And you are correct Geez, when you go to Conseco its pretty easy to find or spot a cop. The #1 thing with crowd control is make your presence known. Its not the idea of trying to be heavy handed, but let the person know "You are going to be seen and there'll be consequences. Everyone talks about well it's not the Palace's fault because you can't control a situation like that. WRONG....You DETER people from having the thought before even trying it......Now we get to watch our season go down the drain because Tom Wilson wanted to save the buck$.
                    This is important enough I had to copy and paste it to the IS site. Thanks RWB.

                    Ever notice how friendly folks are at a shootin' range??.

                    Comment

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