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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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Colts/Pats --- here we go again

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  • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

    we all know the Colts lost because Vontae Davis wasn't there to pick off Brady the fourth time in four games
    Last edited by BlueCollarColts; 11-18-2012, 10:22 PM.

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    • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

      From a Patriots perspective, a loss would have been far preferable to a Gronkowski broken arm.
      The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

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      • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

        Originally posted by Slick Pinkham View Post
        From a Patriots perspective, a loss would have been far preferable to a Gronkowski broken arm.
        Damn is that what they are fearing? That would be a brutal blow to the Patriots, as well as my fantasy team.

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        • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

          Originally posted by Sollozzo View Post
          Damn is that what they are fearing? That would be a brutal blow to the Patriots, as well as my fantasy team.
          http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com...ys-on-forearm/

          out 4-6 weeks, confirmed broken
          The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

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          • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

            Originally posted by Slick Pinkham View Post

            Damn

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            • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

              Hate to sound like a dick, but it serves them right for keeping the starters in there that late in the game. **** you, New England.

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              • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

                Originally posted by cdash View Post
                Hate to sound like a dick, but it serves them right for keeping the starters in there that late in the game. **** you, New England.
                Totally agree. If you're going to be such a huge advocate of "the game is 60 minutes" then you have to deal with the injury risk that comes with it.


                I would have rather seen Brady get smashed though.

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                • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

                  To be fair, Gronkowski wasn't in at all on that final drive. He only came in because he's part of the extra point team and his arm was broken on a freak play there is my understanding.


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                  • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

                    Our running game was great in the first half, but Arians went away from it for some reason
                    Smothered Chicken!

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                    • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

                      Originally posted by LuckSwagger View Post
                      I hate that stupid team and their ******** fans.
                      Originally posted by LuckSwagger View Post
                      I would have rather seen Brady get smashed though.
                      Pot, meet kettle. Enjoy you opponent being hurt. It shows your class. I remember how Indianapolis Colts message boards exploded with glee over Brady's knee exploding, stickying threads with links to Bernard Pollard T-shirts. So if you want to see low life, scummy, totally turd fans, I suggest that you look very closely in your own mirror.

                      Gronkowski had already been removed for the game on offense. You really only have one extra point unit so he was going to be on it if the score was 7-7, 59-24, or 24-59. This is the NFL and you have a 42 man active game day roster besides the kicker, punter, and long snapper. You can't rest everybody. The sure-fire way to INCREASE the odds of people getting hurt is to run out guys who have not practiced with that special teams unit.

                      You can of course make the argument that starters should not be part of special teams units, but that is not the Belichick philosophy. Special teams is 1/3 of the game, and the wide receivers, tight ends, safeties, defensive backs, running backs and essentially all of the best athletes play on the special teams. Welker, Woodhead, Edelman, Gronkowski, Ridley, Vareen, and other key offensive players fill special teams roles every game.
                      Last edited by Slick Pinkham; 11-19-2012, 11:15 AM.
                      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!).

                      Comment


                      • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

                        Originally posted by Slick Pinkham View Post
                        Pot, meet kettle.
                        Not that I care either way, but why the hell are you running gadget plays up big?

                        Is a halfback dive not good enough to kill the clock?

                        If you score on that play (a HB or FB dive), fine. You should never "stop" playing. But why the need for "style" points? Is the NFL using a BCS system that I was unaware of?

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                        • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

                          Originally posted by Slick Pinkham View Post
                          Pot, meet kettle. Enjoy you opponent being hurt. It shows your class. I remember how Indianapolis Colts message boards exploded with glee over Brady's knee exploding, stickying threads with links to Bernard Pollard T-shirts. So if you want to see low life scummy totally turd fans, I suggest that you look very closely in your own mirror.
                          What Colts message boards did that? I certainly have no memory of that and I have been looking at Colts message boards for at least six years. Sure there might have been your occasional idiot who expressed glee from the injury, but the reaction from the Colts fan base as a whole was very sympathetic towards Brady and the Pats. Here is the coltfreaks.com thread about the Brady injury from September 2008. That is probably the most popular Colts message board.

                          Sources: Brady out with ACL tear

                          http://www.coltfreaks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8181

                          If you scroll through the pages, it's clear that the overwhelming majority of fans were sad to see the injury. Colts fans never wanted Brady hurt. Why would we want that? The rivalry was infinitely better when Brady and Manning were healthy. I wanted to beat a Patriots team with Brady on it. Notice how the 08 victory against the Pats was not brought up in the thread about most memorable Pats-Colts games. It was boring compared to the previous matchups because of the Brady injury.

                          From that thread I linked to:

                          I hope the speculation is wrong. Best wishes to Tom on a speedy recovery.

                          Indeed. It's horrible to see a great player go out like that. Best of luck to him.
                          Reply With Quote


                          Agreed. I detest BB and "some" Pats fans, but I have no problem with Brady. I hope he's OK.

                          Wow hate to see it even to a team that I despise. Brady I have no problem with.. he has succeeded in perhaps the hardest market to make do so.

                          well if it had to happen, then it's best to happen early in the season so that he'll be ready for the start of next year. hopefully he has a speedy recovery.

                          This sucks... I have a great amount of disdain and good-natured sports hatred for the Pats, but to have the MVP go down in the first game is something I wouldnt wish on anyone....

                          Really hate to see any player get hurt, but especially someone that has been such a great player for years. I hope that Brady can come back next year without any problem.

                          I feel bad for Tom Brady as a player. You hate to see a guys career sidetracked or even ended like that.

                          A couple of Pats fans noticed how classy the Colts fans were being:

                          Wow, you guys over here are real classy! Thank you for all the kind words and support.

                          Hey ColtFreaks...

                          I just wanted to congratulate you all on staying classy. We've seen many fans on other team boards gloating over Brady's injury. It really made me feel good reading all your posts saying what happened to Tom is sad and all your best wishes comments.


                          -----------------------------

                          After reading through that thread again, it's clear that the overwhelming majority of Colts fans on the most popular Colts message board were extremely sympathetic about the Brady injury. The Colts fans were so classy about it that a couple of Pats fans stopped by the thread to thank them. This whole notion you have that Colts message boards were exploding with glee about the Brady injury is just false. Which ones did that? Where is the link to it? I went into the archives of the most popular message board and have shown that the fans did not behave that way. Most message boards have archives that go back for many many years, so the evidence should not be too hard to find.
                          Last edited by Sollozzo; 11-19-2012, 10:15 PM.

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                          • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

                            What gadget play are you talking about, the Edelman end-around? At that point the score was 45-24 and there was 11 or 12 minutes left in the game. Is Luck capable of leading the Colts to three touchdowns in 11 minutes? Of course he is. Dan Orlovsky did it last year.

                            After that TD, what did the Patriots do? 1 dump-off pass to Vareen, 8 rushes by Vareen, 1 rush by Ridley, and 1 pass to Welker on 3rd-and-long. That's it.
                            The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

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                            • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

                              Well it's not a Colts board per se, but I remember the IU/Peegs boards just reveling in Brady's injury. Several Colts fans had "the hit" as their avatar.

                              LuckSwagger saying "I would have rather seen Brady get smashed" certainly reminded me of that reaction.

                              To be honest though it was the Pittsburgh and NY Jets fans who actually made and sold versions of the Bernard Pollard T-shirts such as this one:

                              It was also the Jets boards that erupted with joy last night at the Gronkowski news.
                              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!).

                              Comment


                              • Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

                                Originally posted by Slick Pinkham View Post
                                Well it's not a Colts board per se, but I remember the IU/Peegs boards just reveling in Brady's injury. Several Colts fans had "the hit" as their avatar.

                                LuckSwagger saying "I would have rather seen Brady get smashed" certainly reminded me of that reaction.

                                To be honest though it was the Pittsburgh and NY Jets fans who actually made and sold versions of the Bernard Pollard T-shirts such as this one:

                                It was also the Jets boards that erupted with joy last night at the Gronkowski news.

                                OK, so a few idiots on an IU board changed their avatar, probably for attention. And they didn't go near as far as you say Pitt and Jets fans did. A peegs board doesn't reflect mainstream Colts fans, IMHO. Coltfreaks is the mainstream Colts board as that is the board that most NFL fans will visit if they want to talk to the Colts fans. And the reaction there was overwhelmingly classy. It was so classy that some Pats fans stopped by to thank the Colts fans.

                                It wouldn't make sense for Colts fans to celebrate the Brady injury because the Colts also had a HOF QB back then who they relied on. Manning is just as human as Brady, so why celebrate a Brady injury when it's just as likely that something could happen to Manning? It was always possible that Manning himself would have a bad injury someday, and we all know that's exactly what happened three years later.

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