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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:

"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.

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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

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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Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

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  • Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

    http://blogs.indystar.com/pacersinsi...doesnt-belong/

    Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?
    by Mike Wells

    Roy Hibbert’s body transformation since being drafted in 2008 has been incredible. I recall watching an unorthodox, unimpressive Hibbert working out on the main court of Bankers Life Fieldhouse prior to the draft that year.

    Hibbert’s body – and his game – has improved each season because of his offseason workout dedication and desire to eat healthy.

    The big fella took it to another level this offseason when he started doing MMA training at Integrated Fighting Academy on the Southside of Indy to help his conditioning.

    Hibbert and I have had countless conversations over the years about his workouts. But rather than talk about what goes into his MMA training, Hibbert invited me to participate in a session so I could get a first-hand experience of the sweat and pain he goes through.

    Pacers rookie Orlando Johnson and Hibbert’s nutritionist Mike Roussell also took part in the workout on Wednesday.

    We started with four, three-minute rounds of sparring with a trainer with only a minute break in between each round.

    I was good for the first two rounds, but that’s when reality set in for me.

    I was so tired by the third round that I was throwing three-six combinations instead of the one-two combinations my trainer Sam was calling for.

    I thought Sam would throw me a bone since I’m at the peewee level conditioning wise compared to Hibbert and Johnson.

    That wishful thinking by me.

    Sam popped me in my head or my ribs every time I stopped protecting my body with the gloves.

    My head was spinning and stomach was churning ready to send the Chipotle chicken bowl I ate for lunch flying out my mouth by the time we were finished sparring. I’m glad I laid off the chips and guacamole.

    Once again I was naïve to think we were finished for the day.

    That was the just the warm up.

    Next up were four crossfit stations – a jump box, weighted ropes, jumping jacks while wearing a weighted vest and holding two dumb bells, then a full mount on top of punching bag mixing in a combination of punches and elbows.

    We did three sets of each – a minute, 45 seconds and 30 seconds.

    Again, the chicken was begging to come out my stomach. I fought the urge to head to the nearest trash can because if you know the relationship Hibbert and I have, you know I would never hear the end of it from him.

    To wrap up the hour-long session, which felt about four hours when it was all said and done, we did a drill they referred to as “Mayweather’s.” We stood with our hands above heads and trainers pounded our stomachs with pads for a minute.

    I’ll be the first to admit I don’t have a six-pack stomach, so to say those free hits to the gut didn’t feel well would be an understatement. In fact, I jumped back a couple of times to avoid being hit. Doing that caused lots of laughs out of everybody and more hits to the head from Sam.

    “No matter how many times you go to the gym or no matter how many miles you run a week, there’s no type of training like this,” Sam said.

    He was right about that.

    The experience was tiring, painful and has made my body feel like its aged several years, but I’m glad I made it from start to finish.

    More importantly, though, it gave me a better understanding of the work Hibbert has put in to transform his body over the years. The same goes for the MMA fighters.

    Hibbert and Johnson lifted weights and scrimmaged over at the fieldhouse prior to doing their MMA workouts on Wednesday.
    Love the work ethic!
    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...

  • #2
    Re: Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

    I love seeing that Orlando is working out with Hibbert.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

      Oh Mike, you're killing me. And the workout won't even be the worst part, 2 days after the workout when you can't even bare the ab pain to sit on the toilet or can't raise your hand to wipe the soap out of your eyes in the shower, that's when you'll really be hating life. Incapable of essential functions.



      I'm not surprised by Roy's work ethic in the least. That was always his strength as a prospect, being smart and dedicated. He's leveraging those to improve or overcome his weaknesses.

      But let's keep expectations real, there is a cap on improvement. This won't make him Patrick Ewing. But it will keep his career plateaued at it's peak point for longer if he keeps it up.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

        Good to see the work ethic from Hibbert is still going strong. Gonna be important in order for him to take that next step.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

          Originally posted by Naptown_Seth View Post
          But let's keep expectations real, there is a cap on improvement. This won't make him Patrick Ewing. But it will keep his career plateaued at it's peak point for longer if he keeps it up.
          Oh, let's hope not. Patrick Ewing never won a championship.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

            Originally posted by LoneGranger33 View Post
            Oh, let's hope not. Patrick Ewing never won a championship.
            Neither did Miller, but we idolize him. Let's not confuse a player with a team. I doubt MJ could win a championship playing for the Bobcats.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

              Originally posted by Naptown_Seth View Post
              This won't make him Patrick Ewing.
              I don't think he will ever be the offensive player that Ewing was. Ewing was fluid in his shooting motion. Something you are born with frankly.

              But I think Hibbert can be as good defensively, or at least close. Ewing was not on the same level as The Dream, or Mutumbo, or even David Robinson. I think he was a great defensive center in an era of greater post players.

              Hibbert can be a great defensive player in an era of weak post players.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

                Well maybe its just me, but I didn't feel like we had a problem with scoring the ball last year. We need to score our points a bit differently to draw more fouls, but otherwise I think we are good on the offensive end. We need to improve our defense. We can't let guys like Wade, Lebron and Rondo get in a position to get a bail out call. Which means better defense

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

                  Originally posted by Mad-Mad-Mario View Post
                  Well maybe its just me, but I didn't feel like we had a problem with scoring the ball last year. We need to score our points a bit differently to draw more fouls, but otherwise I think we are good on the offensive end. We need to improve our defense. We can't let guys like Wade, Lebron and Rondo get in a position to get a bail out call. Which means better defense
                  It wasn't bad but it was not elite either.

                  PTS/G: 97.7 (13th of 30) ▪ Opp PTS/G: 94.4 (10th of 30)
                  SRS: 2.59 (9th of 30) ▪ Pace: 90.7 (19th of 30)
                  Off Rtg: 106.7 (7th of 30) ▪ Def Rtg: 103.1 (9th of 30)
                  Expected W-L: 41-25 (7th of 30)

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

                    Originally posted by Major Cold View Post
                    It wasn't bad but it was not elite either.

                    PTS/G: 97.7 (13th of 30) ▪ Opp PTS/G: 94.4 (10th of 30)
                    SRS: 2.59 (9th of 30) ▪ Pace: 90.7 (19th of 30)
                    Off Rtg: 106.7 (7th of 30) ▪ Def Rtg: 103.1 (9th of 30)
                    Expected W-L: 41-25 (7th of 30)
                    I think with the type of players we have, we can't strive to be an elite offensive team. Most elite offensive teams have an ELITE offensive player (whether as a scorer or as a playmaker/set up man) or a special system that's designed to speed up tempo and get up as many shots as possible--esp 3's (D'Antoni or JOB) we have NONE of those things.

                    I do think we could be an elite defensive team, with Roy as our anchor. With Hill, PG, and Danny we have 3 above average defenders (when engaged--Danny) covering perimeter players. All 3 are pretty big and long for their positions, so we'll almost always have the size advantage. If we can cut down on the fouling, we have a chance at being an elite defensive team, while being a pretty good, top 10 offensive team to boot.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

                      Originally posted by Mad-Mad-Mario View Post
                      Well maybe its just me, but I didn't feel like we had a problem with scoring the ball last year. We need to score our points a bit differently to draw more fouls, but otherwise I think we are good on the offensive end. We need to improve our defense. We can't let guys like Wade, Lebron and Rondo get in a position to get a bail out call. Which means better defense
                      Now, just imagine how good it would be if it was more fluid with better ball and player movement? You are right we scored a decent amount, but it was typically ugly and inefficient. Add a dose of efficiency in there, and our offense will be one of the best in the league.

                      Defensively we actually compare favorable with the best defenses in the league. Not the best, but top 10. The one area we do need to do better with is defending the 3point shot. Letting the other team average .351 isn't going to cut it, but even with that our AFG% was still ranked 7th. With Hill starting the full season, and having a back-up big man who isn't undersized should prove to be huge benefit to our defense.

                      Wade and LeBron are going to get those bail out calls basically no matter what. A more efficient offense, though, will make it easier to counter the bail out calls.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

                        The problem with the offense is that it goes cold for long periods, meaning that the defense either has to be exceptional during that stretch - which is possible but no means a lock - or something has to happen that ignites the offense again. With the current offensive scheme, that something has to be an individual player getting hot - the scheme does not provide for ways of changing up the attack to get easy shots once the opponents have figured us out OR we've gotten tired and can't quite execute.
                        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


                        • #13
                          Re: Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

                          After it seemed like God unfairly frowned on us with knucklehead players and a strange coach, He now seems to have disproportionately smiled on us with Vogel and Hibbert.
                          "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

                            We were ranked 13th in offense last year as a whole, but I thought I read somewhere that we were top 10 with Hill at PG. I don't think we have the talent to be an elite team on either end of the court. But we can be a top 10 on both ends of the court I feel.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Indystar: Pacers: Hibbert, MMA and a sports reporter. Which one doesn’t belong?

                              Originally posted by Naptown_Seth View Post
                              Oh Mike, you're killing me. And the workout won't even be the worst part, 2 days after the workout when you can't even bare the ab pain to sit on the toilet or can't raise your hand to wipe the soap out of your eyes in the shower, that's when you'll really be hating life. Incapable of essential functions.



                              I'm not surprised by Roy's work ethic in the least. That was always his strength as a prospect, being smart and dedicated. He's leveraging those to improve or overcome his weaknesses.

                              But let's keep expectations real, there is a cap on improvement. This won't make him Patrick Ewing. But it will keep his career plateaued at it's peak point for longer if he keeps it up.
                              I don't think he's peaked yet, I think he'll make the jump from where he is to a perrenial all-star type of guy. He's only a minute or two more per game, and slightly higher usage from being a 16-10.5 guy instead of a 13-9 type of guy. I think he gets there.
                              Goodbye Captain, My Captain. I wish you had the chance to sink or swim with your ship on its quest for the "ship".

                              Comment

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