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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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Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

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  • Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

    ou've got to be kidding me. Really? These tweets can't be serious can they? Berger and Co. have to be making this stuff up, right? Berger: Others have touched on this, but Blazers have nothing but contempt for Minnesota's bid for RFA Nicolas Batum. Sorry, Nic, you're staying. John Canzano: Paul Allen "livid" with Minnesota's pursuit of Nic Batum. Feels they're in this only to drive Portland's price higher. This is the same franchise that offered "toxic," front-loaded contracts to try to ensure the Utah Jazz wouldn't match for Paul Milsap and Wes Matthews. This is the same franchise that set the "overpay" precedent this offseason by offering Roy Hibbert (a non-max player) a max contract. Contempt? Livid? And what emotions do you think other fans/front offices have felt while Portland attempts to annually pillage their rosters with offers of overpriced/toxic contracts? Overpaying is a common theme in free agency that will eventually haunt NBA owners in collective bargaining. Overpaying, I think most NBA fans can handle because it's such a prominent element when dealing with desperate teams and sophisticated/wheeling-and-dealing agents. Overpaying with a complete disregard for how your past and current actions may affect other NBA teams/moves? That's just myopia of epic proportions. No one feels bad for you Paul and Neil. As the old saying goes, "you reap what you sow." Gotta love NBA free agency.
    Source: Indy Cornrows

    Funny how the universe works, still sucks they put us in this position. I'm almost to the point of saying let Roy walk, in all reality he hasnt nor will ever put up the numbers that justify that loot.
    "Did we learn anything?"-Jonathan Ames

    "No, but thats okay, It's a good thing to stay in the dark about things - it keeps life more interesting."- George Christopher


  • #2
    Re: Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

    Originally posted by BornReady#6 View Post
    This is the same franchise that offered "toxic," front-loaded contracts to try to ensure the Utah Jazz wouldn't match for Paul Milsap and Wes Matthews.
    As I've been saying, Portland is going to poison pill the Pacers too. If possible with max contracts, it will either be a front loaded or back loaded contract, whichever they think we will be most likely to pass on.

    Another thought; If it was back loaded with most of the money in the final two years that would help us now. Say it's 10-10-19-19, we could sign him and take the first two years to rework our roster, or trade him. Of course we might not be able to trade him in two years because everyone will be trying to get under or stay under the luxury tax. The front office will have to bear that in mind.

    So it will probably be front loaded, designed to hurt us now. Actually who knows!
    Last edited by Will Galen; 07-06-2012, 01:21 PM.

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    • #3
      Re: Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

      Originally posted by Will Galen View Post
      As I've been saying, Portland is going to poison pill the Pacers too. It will either be a front loaded or back loaded contract, whichever they think we will be most likely to pass on.
      It can't be front loaded or back loaded. The max contract is based on the first year's salary. The most they can offer Roy is $13.6M for the first year with raises of 4.5%. The $58M is the total the max salary and max raises generate. It is not a max number that the contract adds up to. The poison pill, front loaded, back loaded stuff only works with contracts that are less than the max.

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      • #4
        Re: Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

        Originally posted by Will Galen View Post
        As I've been saying, Portland is going to poison pill the Pacers too. It will either be a front loaded or back loaded contract, whichever they think we will be most likely to pass on.
        Wouldn't the contract be less than max if it's front or back loaded?

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        • #5
          Re: Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

          I hope everyone who was worried about Pritchard is paying attention to what an *** Paul Allen really is.

          [edit] Also, I must say, Nic Batum for $11-12M per makes me feel better about Roy for $14.5M.
          Last edited by Kegboy; 07-06-2012, 01:13 PM.
          Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!

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          • #6
            Re: Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

            Originally posted by xIndyFan View Post
            It can't be front loaded or back loaded. The max contract is based on the first year's salary. The most they can offer Roy is $13.6M for the first year with raises of 4.5%. The $58M is the total the max salary and max raises generate. It is not a max number that the contract adds up to. The poison pill, front loaded, back loaded stuff only works with contracts that are less than the max.
            Okay, thanks. I used to run my own spreadsheet and stay up to date on this kind of stuff, but the way the NBA is now days, I'm no longer interested enough to think about the obvious.

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            • #7
              Re: Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

              That brings up a question though. If a max contract is set in stone like that why would the front office need to read the contract before deciding to match? That's whats being said.

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              • #8
                Re: Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

                Well HA ****ING HA, JACKASS.
                Senior at the University of Louisville.
                Greenfield ---> The Ville

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                • #9
                  Re: Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

                  Originally posted by Will Galen View Post
                  That brings up a question though. If a max contract is set in stone like that why would the front office need to read the contract before deciding to match? That's whats being said.
                  I think for starters we dont even know what a max contact is. Other than that this talkmeans nothing till roy actually signs the contract and 2 days, 23 hours and 59 minutes have passed. I think portland had the cap hit until we match, so if we're going to match we wait as long as possible to f portland.
                  Danger Zone

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                  • #10
                    Re: Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

                    Cant help but wonder if donnie walsh's old buddy Kahn just added a little something something to get at Allen and company for the deal they obviously made to screw with pritchard....a little what comes around goes around....pacers will match...all you afraid they wont should relax....this is personal for allen and portland kinda overplayed their hand...roys agent is just doing is job....and its business for roy and agent...roy never wanted to go anywhere and the pacers never wanted him to go anywhere...if they feel theyre overpaying then they will do so and maybe trade him in the future...its really that simple...
                    The Most Common Cause of Stress is Dealing with Idiots

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                    • #11
                      Re: Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

                      1. We DO know what a max contract is.

                      2. As Wells explained, there's apparently a way to 'almost max' Roy and therefore use signing bonuses to front load the deal, which they may or may not have done in Portland with Roy's offer. Apparently, the Pacers don't know either way until the 11th. What confuses me is why wouldn't Roy's agent tell Indiana what the structure is to speed up a decision either way?

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                      • #12
                        Re: Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

                        What Portland is trying to say is wolves dont really want him they just know ptown will match anything so there makin em pay more then they want to. Which i think is opposite to hibbert cuz i think they really do want him and not just trying to make us pay max. Only real way u get RFAs is to overpay.u guys get mad at people goin our rfa but everyone wanted gordon, so i see no difference

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                        • #13
                          Re: Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

                          Originally posted by Hicks View Post

                          2. As Wells explained, there's apparently a way to 'almost max' Roy and therefore use signing bonuses to front load the deal, which they may or may not have done in Portland with Roy's offer. Apparently, the Pacers don't know either way until the 11th. What confuses me is why wouldn't Roy's agent tell Indiana what the structure is to speed up a decision either way?
                          What makes u think roys agent hasnt told indiana? what makes u think a decision hasnt been made? just because they havent announced a decision doesnt mean they havent made one....the pacers have been in the catbirds seat from the very beginning...why give that up? its actually beneficial for the pacers to let teams-especially portland-think theyre undecided on whether to match....and even moreso to let portland think theyre gonna get hibbert...if they say theyre matching then portland goes out and talks to other free agents...free agents the pacers could very well have an interest in....this way portland is constrained from doing much in that regard, even moreso if they believe they will get hibbert....portland is dying to know what the pacers are gonna do....just like all the fans are....walsh and pritchard know what theyre doing...and theyre not telling anyone...and theres many many good reasons for not doing such...and outside of putting ur fears to rest, theres no good reason to tell anyone what theyre doing until they actually do it...and i dont look for them to do anything until the very last hour...thus getting back at paul allen and company as decisions will likely have been made on most of the desirable free agents by then and the blazers will be left pretty empty handed...
                          The Most Common Cause of Stress is Dealing with Idiots

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                          • #14
                            Re: Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

                            assuming 58 mio, max signing bonus is 10% of that, counted over the duration -minus option years so in this case 4 years.

                            which means cap hits remain the same and salary is lowered by 5.8 * 0.25 = 1.45 so first year hit would be 5.8 - 1.45 = 4.35 mio on top of the starting salary
                            So Long And Thanks For All The Fish.

                            If you've done 6 impossible things today?
                            Then why not have Breakfast at Milliways!

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                            • #15
                              Re: Portland getting a taste of its own medicine, and not liking it

                              Originally posted by cinotimz View Post
                              What makes u think roys agent hasnt told indiana? what makes u think a decision hasnt been made?
                              Mike Wells. David Aldridge.

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