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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.

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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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Patience, Grasshoppers...

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  • Patience, Grasshoppers...

    I know it's impossible not to worry when your favorite team is making questionable offseason decisions. I went through the same pessimism when we picked up Plumlee. But I want you guys to take into consideration that we've only officially had these guys signed for, what, 24 hours? I feel you should have more faith in this team, more faith in our new players, more faith in our front office, and most importantly, more faith in our coach, that they will be able to work together and produce as well, if not better, than they did last season.

    If Coach Vogel gives the role of distribution to DJ Augustin, you have to believe that Augustin is a good enough player, and professional, to play the way his coach wants him to. Yes, he can score. Yes, he can shoot. Yes, he averages around 6 assists on a bad Bobcats team with mediocre jump shooters. You should trust that, with our coaching staff, he's going to get time playing with the starters, and he's going to make the whole team better when he's on the court. That's something DC didn't do: look to make his teammates better instead of trying to carry the team with his penetration and floaters. It's about them having a different mentality, not the fact that they're the same height, or play even close to the same kind of basketball.

    I know Lance Stephenson, Gerald Green, and Orlando Johnson may not look like much as a backcourt rotation. Lance is in his third year, and has had enough time to progress, work with the team, mature, and actually BE ready for the NBA, rather than just being Born Ready. Gerald Green still underwhelms many of you (to the point where my constant support of and campaigning for him has caused others to think he's now overrated), but the fact of the matter is, he still has a good offensive game. He CAN score, more than just dunks, more than just lucky penetration moves. He shoots, inside and out. And yes, Orlando Johnson is definitely underwhelming in Summer League. So did Paul George, and look at how he's developed in the time he's played. I know TraderJoe particularly thinks that he won't even earn a spot on the roster, which may be the case. But if the FO and coaching staff see something in him (and any of the other guys), you have to trust that they know more about basketball than you do, otherwise they wouldn't be getting paid "bookoo bucks" to do their jobs.

    Now to Mahinmi. We can all agree that paying DJ and DC to get Mahinmi was a little overkill. To only receive a long, athletic, shot-blocking, defensive center in return for a veteran wing and a point guard (who plays like a shooting guard, wanted to start, and wanted to get paid Hill money to do so) is a little disappointing. But clearing up the cap room from DC's and DJ's contracts (as well as avoiding having to pay DC in the future) was the main point of that trade. Is 4yrs/16m too much for him? You can go ahead and say yes, because you haven't seen him play. I'm sure more than half of you haven't even seen any highlights, nor lowlights, nor any gameplay whatsoever, to make your decision; but you're going to think it anyway. For a bunch of people who know nothing about him (especially how to pronounce or spell his name), you're not giving him the light of day that he might ACTUALLY contribute to this team.

    Ah, Miles Plumlee. Yeh, we could have had Perry Jones. I'm sorry guys, but wasn't I the one who, for like two years, was praying we had some chance to pick PJ3 in the draft, even though it was almost unanimous that our pick would be too low? Well, we passed by him for Plumlee. Do you know why? Not because of Perry's knees, not because Bird loves white guys. Maybe because Pritchard thought he was a pussy (@SlikSmits). But it was because Pritch, Vogel, and many other Pacers officials loved the comparison between Miles and Jeff Foster (including Foster himself). They were looking for a particular player, found him, and picked him. Who else were the Pacers going to pick that low? Arnett Moultrie, maybe. Marquis Teague, now not necessary with DJ Augustin. Look at the team we have now, and who would have supplemented better than a dirty-work 4/5 big man? For those of you saying he'll play third rotation at center, what's to say he can't play the 4? How gifted and intelligent are we to just assume where Plumlee can play on the court? The jury is still out on Plumlee (Summer League is no indicator of his skill), but we'll have to see what kind of impact he'll make in a place where guards and wings don't try to dominate the floor.

    GUYS! We have to get it together!
    All this calling for FO firing, and selling the team, and who sucks, and who doesn't, and how bad we're gonna be, and how there's no way we'll compete against anyone.

    Don't you think that Vogel and the veterans can rally this team into working together, and playing the best basketball AS A TEAM as possible (something that all the Big 3 teams out there can't come close to doing). The main point of this offseason was to re-solidify our starting 5 (which we did), and make our bench deeper than it was last year (something that we thought we had, but didn't; but now we do). These guys are a TEAM. What do we have this year that we didn't last year? A full, non-rushed offseason, summer league, preseason, and plenty of practice time to make them better AS A WHOLE.

    There's no reason to blow up this team. We've only had this team, officially, as it currently stands, since 4pm on Friday. And a lot of these posters are acting like we just turned INTO the Cavs after LeBron fell off. Or the Hornets after CP3 dodged out. Or the Bobcats, Wizards, Jazz, etc. Weren't we third in the East last year? Fifth in the league? All league problems aside (D-Rose getting injured, Bosh injured during the playoffs, etc.), we still kicked a lot more *** last year than ANYONE on this board thought we would. How did we possibly get worse in the last few days? DC, Dahntay, Lou, Fes are out. Augustin, Green, Plumlee, OJ, Mahinmi are in. We're bigger and more skilled in the post, we've got shooters on the bench, our starting five is intact.

    All the wisdom I want to bestow on you readers is that we should be patient. Our summer league run is over, our roster will soon be solidified, practices can start, our team can build and learn and mesh, and we'll soon come together and prove the haters wrong. Please have patience, and have faith in this team, the players, the front office, the coaching staff, everyone. They're not stupid, they're not ignorant, they know what they're doing. Let them do their work, and trust that we'll come out of this offseason with fervor, intensity, and amazing chemistry.

    I have a lot of faith and trust in this team. I will always support this team, no matter what they do. Now is not a time to turn your back on the Pacers. It's a time to be proud of what we've accomplished (who else led the Heat 2-1 in the playoffs? Boston? that's good company). Let's all join together, be strong, and look on the brighter side. We're Pacers fans, not bandwagon Heat fans. I'm not trying to call anyone out in any way. I just want us all to come together, be proud of what we have, and have faith.

    Thank you for your time, and I'm happy to be in the same category of fandom as a lot of you.

    I love you all. Good night.

    witters: @imbtyler, @postgameonline

    Originally posted by Day-V
    In conclusion, Paul George is awesome.
    Originally posted by Slick Pinkham
    Our arena, their arena, Rucker park, it just doesn't matter. We're bigger, longer, younger, faster, and hungrier.



  • #2
    Re: Patience, Grasshoppers...

    Outside of Plumlee, I don't know if anyone is complaining about the new players. I think all of the complaints are about giving away assets that we didn't have to or missing out on great opportunities to snag a very good player for a very cheap price via amnesty.

    I'm probably one of the most critical about our offseason, but I'm looking forward to watching them play and I think we'll have a shot at being better this season.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Patience, Grasshoppers...

      Who here isn't patient? From what I have read about 75% of the board is happy with the direction of the organization.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Patience, Grasshoppers...

        Originally posted by joew8302 View Post
        Who here isn't patient? From what I have read about 75% of the board is happy with the direction of the organization.
        It's not aimed at anyone in particular, but the other theoretical 25% have been very glass-mostly-empty and hum-bum sad clown about everything lately. Besides that, everyone's had their personal reservations against at least one of the moves made since the draft. I'm just trying to put everything in perspective for the readers. I understand we're not all ready to jump off a cliff/bridge/boat/spaceship, but every move has its reasons, and to every madness, there is a method.
        witters: @imbtyler, @postgameonline

        Originally posted by Day-V
        In conclusion, Paul George is awesome.
        Originally posted by Slick Pinkham
        Our arena, their arena, Rucker park, it just doesn't matter. We're bigger, longer, younger, faster, and hungrier.


        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Patience, Grasshoppers...

          I, for one, am not going to jump off a bridge until we see what we've really got. On the court. It's not like we don't have another opportunity for a mini do-over at the trade deadline.
          http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-tr...nce-stephenson
          "But, first, let us now praise famous moments, because something happened Tuesday night in Indianapolis that you can watch a lifetime’s worth of professional basketball and never see again. There was a brief, and very decisive, and altogether unprecedented, outburst of genuine officiating, and it was directed at the best player in the world, and that, my dear young person, simply is not done."

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Patience, Grasshoppers...

            Originally posted by imawhat View Post
            Outside of Plumlee, I don't know if anyone is complaining about the new players. I think all of the complaints are about giving away assets that we didn't have to or missing out on great opportunities to snag a very good player for a very cheap price via amnesty.

            I'm probably one of the most critical about our offseason, but I'm looking forward to watching them play and I think we'll have a shot at being better this season.
            I agree, and i'm not even mad about Plumlee anymore, he showed alot of promise in the Summer League. I'll be honest with you. A big man from duke, I really just expected him to run up and down the floor and grab a few rebounds. But he really stepped it up. Dunking in peoples faces, hitting open jumpers, putting the ball on the floor. He just needs to get a bit more physical on D.
            You can't get champagne from a garden hose.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Patience, Grasshoppers...

              I'm okay with everything except failing to bid on Brand and Scola. That's got me scratching my head.
              "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Patience, Grasshoppers...

                grasshopper cookies are delicious
                Peck is basically omniscient when it comes to understanding how the minds of Herb Simon and Kevin Pritchard work. I was a fool to ever question him and now feel deep shame for not understanding that this team believes in continuity above talent.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Patience, Grasshoppers...

                  Originally posted by joew8302 View Post
                  Who here isn't patient? From what I have read about 75% of the board is happy with the direction of the organization.
                  From an outside perspective, I've seen more disappointment in/disapproval of the Pacer's offseason than I expected, so I can see where imbtyler's coming from.

                  I think that tends to happen to teams with some cap wiggle room though who expect big things from free agency and those big things never happen. For what it's worth though, I'm just happy they didn't go do something stupid like sign Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva to big contracts as the Pistons did a few seasons ago. I know a lot of people want Mayo, but there's a whole bunch of statistical evidence suggesting he's far from a lock to ever be a productive and valuable NBA player.

                  A Gerald Green fan who now finds himself rooting for the Suns.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Patience, Grasshoppers...

                    Keep in mind the off season isn't over and the trade deadline doesn't end until mid February. Things can still happen in the off season, and changes can be made up until the deadline if things aren't working out. I wish the Pacers could have gotten more out of trading DC, I wish there had been cap to bid on Brand or Scola, and I wasn't enthused with picking Plum Jam; BUT I'm not ready to cancel being a Pacers fan. I'm willing to wait and see how this team plays. By the 25th game or so, it should be evident what this team is. If it is another 2 and out or forbid the thought a 1 and out, then I'd say there was some blunders made by the FO, but only time will tell.

                    My personal belief is that the Pacers are going to have a difficult time matching last years .646 win %. I'm not sure the changes, SO FAR will match last season or even be better. I can only hope and have a little patience.

                    Comment

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