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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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NBA PM: Top Five Impact NBA Injuries

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  • #1

    NBA PM: Top Five Impact NBA Injuries

    http://www.hoopsworld.com/nba-pm-top...-nba-injuries/

    There is little question that today’s NBA players are remarkably more athletic than their counterparts of generations past. Big men are no longer the lumbering hulks who hang around the rim waiting to dunk, and guards are no longer earth-bound creators who get most of their points from outside. Unfortunately, for all of the amazing physical advances we’ve seen in professional athletes over the years, there is one constant that remains, perhaps with even more frequency: The Almighty Injury.

    Injuries are the equalizers in professional sports, and can make even the best teams on paper struggle to win games in reality. This is especially true in the NBA, where one player can make or break a team’s season in a way that is much rarer in other team sports. With that in mind, we take a look at some early season injuries that have derailed a number of NBA teams already this season. As a qualifier, we’ll only be looking at players who were not expected to be out when the season began, so Chicago’s Derrick Rose and Washington’s John Wall, for example, don’t count. The Bulls and Wizards knew they had their work cut out for them coming in.

    1) Dirk Nowitzki, Dallas Mavericks – As the Dallas Mavericks were busy with another round of major roster changes last summer, they counted on one thing to assure them of yet another 50-win season. They knew that as long as former MVP Dirk Nowitzki was in place that they would have a fighting chance to be among the league’s elite, even with an almost entirely different supporting cast around him. But Nowitzki didn’t look quite right as training camp got underway and he struggled as the preseason schedule came around. Soreness in his knee sidelined him first, and the team hoped that rest would cure the problem, but when that didn’t work, surgery meant that Nowitzki would miss the first six weeks or so of the regular season. The Mavs held their own through a very light early schedule, but now that the games are getting a little tougher they have fallen on hard times. They have lost seven of their last ten games and currently sit in the West’s tenth seed. That will most likely change once Nowitzki is back and up to full speed, but it’s crystal clear that without a fully-healthy Nowitzki, the Mavs aren’t going anywhere this season.

    2) Danny Granger, Indiana Pacers - Coming into the 2012-13 NBA season, the Indiana Pacers were supposed to be one of the league’s elite teams. They came very close to upsetting the eventual-champion Miami HEAT in postseason play and brought back many of the core components from that team to help push them to new heights. Unfortunately, tendonitis in Danny Granger’s left knee sidelined the team’s leading scorer for three months, and without him they have struggled to regain the form they had at last season’s end. Many Pacers fans were ready to trade Granger in favor of the up-and-coming Paul George, but while George has played well, he has not provided the consistent scoring threat that Granger represents. There are other problems in Indiana, from Roy Hibbert’s terrible start to the lack of great leadership at point guard, but at the heart of the team’s struggles is the absence of Granger.

    3) The Minnesota Timberwolves - The Timberwolves knew they would be without starting point guard Ricky Rubio as they prepared for the start of the 2012-13 season, but they could never have predicted that Kevin Love, J.J. Barea, Chase Budinger, Brandon Roy and Nikola Pekovic would all sustain injuries that would sabotage the team’s hopes of a strong start. Head coach Rick Adelman is no stranger to injuries, of course, and he wizarded some wins even in the face of devastating personnel losses, but the team is just 6-7 on the season and that’s due to the ridiculous number of injuries they’ve sustained.

    4) Steve Nash, Los Angeles Lakers - Some will argue that Steve Nash should be higher on this list, but the bottom line is that the Lakers were absolutely dismal even with Nash in the lineup through preseason and up until a leg fracture took him out of the lineup. Now that former Phoenix Suns coach Mike D’Antoni has taken the helm in Los Angeles, it becomes even more imperative that Nash return to run the offense that was essentially created for him. The Lakers have very little margin for error, and they are in a precarious position with regards to injuries because they have very little depth behind their All-Star-laden starting lineup. Nash’s injury, which was originally only supposed to keep him out for a week, is most certainly the biggest issue facing the 7-8 Lakers. If they continue to lose once he returns, that will be another, bigger, story. Nash is scheduled for an MRI on the leg later today, so hopefully there is some good news coming for the Lakers.

    5) Andrew Bynum, Philadelphia 76ers – Expectations for the Sixers haven’t been this high since Dr. J wore their jersey, as the arrival of Andrew Bynum seemed to usher in a new era of contention for the team. Unfortunately, the Sixers have already begun to experience something the Los Angeles Lakers dealt with for years, which is the oft-injured status of their starting center. When Bynum is healthy, he’s arguably the best center in the NBA. A more dynamic scorer than Dwight Howard and a serviceable defender, Bynum is capable of being the franchise cornerstone for a championship-caliber team. As the Sixers are learning the hard way, however, health is not something to be taken for granted when it comes to Bynum. It’s a credit to head coach Doug Collins and his team that they are off to a 9-6 start even without Bynum, but they have almost no chance of getting out of the first round of the playoffs if he can’t return, and then they have a difficult decision to make about his future next summer. For more on that, be sure and check out HOOPSWORLD TV, where Yannis Koutroupis and I discuss this situation.

    Honorable Mention: Andrew Bogut, Golden State Warriors – See Below

    Warriors Banking on Bogut

    One of the longest-suffering fan bases in the NBA belongs to the Golden State Warriors, where the team has made the playoffs just once since the 1994-95 season. The new management team has gone to work quickly in an effort to change the team’s lack of postseason play, and forward David Lee likes what he’s seen so far.

    “We’ve got a real good group of guys this year,” Lee tells HOOPSWORLD. “Coach [Mark Jackson] has done a real good job. We had a full training camp this year to implement stuff that he wants to get in. Eighty percent of our training camp was defense and our defensive numbers have improved a lot from last season. This year, once we get [Andrew] Bogut back, I think it’ll be even better. I’m just happy with our team so far; I think we’ve done some good things.”

    Andrew Bogut, of course, is supposed to be the missing piece of the Warriors’ playoff puzzle. Acquired in a trade that sent Monta Ellis to the Milwaukee Bucks last season, Bogut has been nursing an ankle injury that kept him out of games last season and has cost him all but five games this season. Lee hasn’t spent a great deal of time playing with Bogut, but he saw enough to make him believe the two can be very effective together.

    “Yeah, I’m very confident the two of us will play great together, it’s just a matter of getting the big fella back and getting him a part of what we’re doing right now,” says Lee. “Our front office has been very aggressive not only with making that big blockbuster trade, but also to add depth to this team. Carl [Landry] has played great this year, Jarrett Jack has played great, we had the injury to Brandon Rush, but because of our depth, we’ve been able to stay above water. It’s a big job from our front office and our coaching staff to put us in a good position, now we just need to follow through and play well.”

    With that stated goal of improving on the defensive end, the Warriors are making marked progress in that area. Last season they allowed 101.2 points per game, ranking them 28th of 30 NBA teams in that category. This season they are allowing just 98.79 points per game, good enough for 13th in the league. They are also third in the league in rebounding, despite the absence of Bogut. Where the team is struggling most is in turnovers, where they are fifth-worst in the league with 16.43 giveaways per game. Lee says part of the reason for the high turnover rate is the number of new faces on the team.

    “I think that’s part of it, yeah,” says Lee. “I think that’s something, as the season goes along, will work itself out. I’ve been on plenty of teams that try to outscore. The last two years here we’ve tried to outscore the other team and when you’re on the road, that’s when you’re really going to see a dip in your winning percentage because you’re just not going to shoot the ball well every night. I’m really happy with what our team has done defensively and we can get a lot better.”

    One way in which the Warriors are likely to continue to improve defensively is on the wing, where Harrison Barnes is adept at scoring, but still finding his way on the defensive end.

    “Yeah, no question, athletically, he’s got all the gifts to be a great defender and he’s a smart player, he’s got a good basketball I.Q,” says Lee of Barnes. “The biggest thing, I think, is just gaining experience. Just like any other rookie, you got to learn some lessons on how to play different guys around the league. The most difficult part is some nights you’re going to play great defense and the other guy is just going to play better offense. He’s figuring it out and figuring out ways to get better, but the most important thing is that he wants to be great at it and he’s continuing to get better each game.”

    The Warriors have made measurable improvements this season, even with Bogut essentially out of the picture. They are better defensively, they’re still scoring better than 98 points per game and they currently sit in the Western Conference’s fourth seed. However, make no mistake: the only way the Warriors can expect to compete with the best teams in the NBA is with a healthy and productive Bogut in the mix. Given that he is struggling to get through full practices, it’s hard to predict how long it might take for him to actually become the cornerstone the Warriors hope he will be.
    Sittin on top of the world!
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  • #2
    Re: NBA PM: Top Five Impact NBA Injuries

    There's no doubt Granger's absence has had an effect on the team. I disagree with the "lack of great leadership" at the PG position thats mentioned. Hill has had an outstanding start so far IMO.

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