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The Rules of Pacers Digest

Hello everyone,

Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.

A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.

Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.

Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.

Rule #1

Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:

"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"

"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"

"He/she is just delusional"

"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"

"I'm going to take a moment to point and / laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"

"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.

We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.

Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.

That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.

A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.

There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.

Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.

In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.

Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.

If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!

All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.

Rule #2

If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.

The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.

The right places to do so are:

A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.

B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.

If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.

Rule #3

If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.

When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.

B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.

To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!

Rule #4

Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

Rule #5

When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.

An example:

If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star

Rule #6

We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.

The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

Rule #7

Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

Rule #8

We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

Rule #9

Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.

Rule #10

We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.

Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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Colts/Pats --- here we go again

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  • #91
    Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

    Forgive us all if we take your predictions of the Colts impeding doom with a grain of salt.


    Comment


    • #92
      Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

      So this is the business plan:
      Get a new stadium, cut Manning in relatively short order, then bring in a low-priced JV squad to play football. Then sit back and rake in the dough.

      Except how much dough can you rake in with a losing team, no star potential, blackouts, and dwindling gate receipts?

      If Irsay was about short-term dough then keeping Manning until his game deteriorated so much the crowd turned on him (IOW milking his career and name value) seems like a better business plan.
      Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.

      ------

      "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork."

      -John Wooden

      Comment


      • #93
        Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

        Now back to our current awesome team. Here is a good Q and A The Star did with Grigson:


        http://blogs.indystar.com/philb/2012...medium=twitter

        Comment


        • #94
          Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

          Originally posted by Bball View Post
          So this is the business plan:
          Get a new stadium, cut Manning in relatively short order, then bring in a low-priced JV squad to play football. Then sit back and rake in the dough.

          Except how much dough can you rake in with a losing team, no star potential, blackouts, and dwindling gate receipts?

          If Irsay was about short-term dough then keeping Manning until his game deteriorated so much the crowd turned on him (IOW milking his career and name value) seems like a better business plan.
          You forget that Irsay pocketed millions by dumping Manning and signing Luck..... He also got to dump a lot of other high paid players (I won't argue that some of them needed to go but they would have had to stay if Peyton stayed) putting even more money in his pocket while he signed rookie and cheap free agent replacements. The dumping of Manning and tear down of this team was strictly financial and Irsay made a fortune doing it. He will do it again as soon as it is convenient and the die hard fans will stay and keep coming and being screwed.... Good teams, well managed team don't go through rebuilds like that. Just look at the Patriots... Since the evil genius has joined that team, they have had some down years but they were still winning. Only bad teams with poor managements have to start all over again every five or six years and spend years losing inbetween....

          Comment


          • #95
            Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

            Originally posted by Trader Joe View Post
            Forgive us all if we take your predictions of the Colts impeding doom with a grain of salt.
            I don't blame you for that at all......

            Comment


            • #96
              Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

              Originally posted by OlBlu View Post
              Good teams, well managed team don't go through rebuilds like that. Just look at the Patriots... Since the evil genius has joined that team, they have had some down years but they were still winning. Only bad teams with poor managements have to start all over again every five or six years and spend years losing inbetween....

              Isn't that exactly what we're doing? We are 6-3 in just our second year without Manning starting and first year without him on the roster. Last year we sucked because we had the worst collection of starting QBs to ever take a snap.

              Comment


              • #97
                Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

                Can we just stop talking to him? There's no point in arguing.
                Don't ask Marvin Harrison what he did during the bye week. "Batman never told where the Bat Cave is," he explained.

                Comment


                • #98
                  Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

                  Originally posted by Suaveness View Post
                  Can we just stop talking to him? There's no point in arguing.
                  Yes, by all means, I mean I might say something you just don't want to hear.... Picture three monkeys here.....

                  Comment


                  • #99
                    Re: Colts/Pats --- here we go again

                    Originally posted by OlBlu View Post
                    You forget that Irsay pocketed millions by dumping Manning and signing Luck..... He also got to dump a lot of other high paid players (I won't argue that some of them needed to go but they would have had to stay if Peyton stayed) putting even more money in his pocket while he signed rookie and cheap free agent replacements. The dumping of Manning and tear down of this team was strictly financial and Irsay made a fortune doing it. He will do it again as soon as it is convenient and the die hard fans will stay and keep coming and being screwed.... Good teams, well managed team don't go through rebuilds like that. Just look at the Patriots... Since the evil genius has joined that team, they have had some down years but they were still winning. Only bad teams with poor managements have to start all over again every five or six years and spend years losing inbetween....
                    Doing what the Colts did doesn't put a ton of money into Irsay's pocket. That's a pretty common misconception. It helps him for cash flow purposes by allowing him to spend it next year instead of this year, but that's it. The Colts are 5 million away from the cap this year, which is smack dab in the middle of the league (around teams like the Patriots, Packers, and Bears). By doing what they did and getting rid of so many players, they opened up quite a bit of cap space next year. But they can't just pocket that money. The new labor agreement forces teams to spend a very large percentage of their cap every year, and that provision goes into effect next season. So if Irsay was trying to make money by doing this, he didn't read the fine print very carefully on the new labor agreement.

                    Comment


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

                      Originally posted by OlBlu View Post
                      Yes, by all means, I mean I might say something you just don't want to hear.... Picture three monkeys here.....
                      You definitely have the bolded part correct.
                      There are two types of quarterbacks in the league: Those whom over time, the league figures out ... and those who figure out the league.

                      Comment


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

                        Originally posted by Kid Minneapolis View Post
                        You definitely have the bolded part correct.
                        I certainly might do that but it doesn't mean that I will not be correct in the end. We are talking three or four years here. Look at the Pacers. You were one of the group who thought they were going to win 60+ games and get to the ECF. I didn't believe that. I didn't think they improved enough during the season to even stay where they were. I predicted 48-34 and the fifth or sixth seed in the east unless they had a major injury and then they might have to scrap just to get the eighth seed..... The Colts are overperforming right now. That will end soon enough and reality will eventually set in.... They are too thin on talent and they have too many injuries to keep up the present pace in my opinion. A major injury might mean that they do not win any more games this year. I expect them to come out slowly next year as teams adapt to defensing what they do. It would seem to me that the start of this could be the meeting with the evil genius this week. I'm willing to bet that he won't let Reggie Wayne beat him. Someone else might but Reggie Wayne will be stopped or nearly stopped....

                        Comment


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

                          Originally posted by OlBlu View Post
                          That too will end.... If they have that kind of attendance then why do they call me every month begging me to repurchase my season tickets? They lost a lot of season ticket holders. Visiting teams and last minute purchasers have kept that number high. When this train falls of the tracks (and, yes, I believe that will happen in the next couple of years if not yet this year) and there will be blackouts.... Imagine what would happen if, say, Luck injured something that caused nerve damage and could no longer play. I hope that never happens but every player in the NFL can have it happen and Luck has taken way too much punishment and he will continue to take it this year and probably for several years to come..... This not a knock on Luck but on Irsay and management for not having a line to protect him. Peyton had that line and they were always good at pass protection if not the run..... Luck will certainly need "luck" to survive that. The NFL is littered with QB who did not.....
                          Well, the only pre-1997 precedent for anything like that is last year when Manning was hurt, and the fans still came. Yeah, many were ST holders locked into the seats, but I watched those games and TV and people were still physically showing up to the games. If people in Indianapolis were as uninterested in the games as I incorrectly predicted they would be, they would not have shown up regardless of whether they paid for a ticket (there are many more costs to attending a football game).

                          If Luck were to get hurt badly, I actually have all the faith in the world that the team would find a way to rebuild. The NFL is so much bigger than any one player and the Colts have proven that they have the ability to build pretty good teams. This isn't the NBA where losing Lebron puts you into basketball Siberia. The Colts could lose Luck but still be playoff caliber team in 3 years. Not that I want that to happen but in the NFL it is possible. Which is why the NBA will never rival the NFL.

                          Comment


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

                            Originally posted by idioteque View Post
                            Well, the only pre-1997 precedent for anything like that is last year when Manning was hurt, and the fans still came. Yeah, many were ST holders locked into the seats, but I watched those games and TV and people were still physically showing up to the games. If people in Indianapolis were as uninterested in the games as I incorrectly predicted they would be, they would not have shown up regardless of whether they paid for a ticket (there are many more costs to attending a football game).

                            If Luck were to get hurt badly, I actually have all the faith in the world that the team would find a way to rebuild. The NFL is so much bigger than any one player and the Colts have proven that they have the ability to build pretty good teams. This isn't the NBA where losing Lebron puts you into basketball Siberia. The Colts could lose Luck but still be playoff caliber team in 3 years. Not that I want that to happen but in the NFL it is possible. Which is why the NBA will never rival the NFL.
                            They might actually be a better team if they give up on the quick fix and work on making a great offensive line and a defensive front. That is the way I like to see teams built. Then you can look for your all world QB.....

                            Comment


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

                              Originally posted by OlBlu View Post
                              You forget that Irsay pocketed millions by dumping Manning and signing Luck..... He also got to dump a lot of other high paid players (I won't argue that some of them needed to go but they would have had to stay if Peyton stayed) putting even more money in his pocket while he signed rookie and cheap free agent replacements. The dumping of Manning and tear down of this team was strictly financial and Irsay made a fortune doing it. He will do it again as soon as it is convenient and the die hard fans will stay and keep coming and being screwed.... Good teams, well managed team don't go through rebuilds like that. Just look at the Patriots... Since the evil genius has joined that team, they have had some down years but they were still winning. Only bad teams with poor managements have to start all over again every five or six years and spend years losing inbetween....
                              No he didn't he paid him over 14 million not to play for us. Add in Lucks salary and he has 20 million invested in the QB position. You are so wrong, so often, it's ridiculous.

                              And anyone who says Mannings INTs were as good as punts is missing the point. The whole team was built for him to put up points, and when Manning played that poorly, we lost probably 8-9 out of 10 games. My point was the SB win was a complete team effort.
                              "Don't get caught watchin' the paint dry"

                              Comment


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

                                Here's hoping Donnie Avery has put in some extra time with Andrew this week. Patriots are not going to let Reggie Wayne beat them this week and they'll have something planned to take him out of the equation. Dink and dunk baby, dink and dunk with some run thrown in to help our defense stay off the field and keep Brady on the sidelines too.
                                You know how hippos are made out to be sweet and silly, like big cows, but are actually extremely dangerous and can kill you with stunning brutality? The Pacers are the NBA's hippos....Matt Moore CBS Sports....

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