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The Rules of Pacers Digest

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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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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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In the words of Stephen Jackson...

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  • In the words of Stephen Jackson...

    This is part of a larger interview so if you want the full story go to the link, this is the Pacer related part. I will (for now) post this without comment.

    http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/fan...y-life#comment

    Were you that tight with them to take that kind of risk?

    I put my career on the line twice. We were all basically the same age on a young, fiery team who had its share of legal struggles. We all grew up basically in the hood, so we related to each other.

    So when Ron went into the stands, I didn’t think twice about it because he was my brother. I just went up there.

    Weird question, but to battle like that … was it fun at all?

    When I hit that fan, I definitely enjoyed it -- until that fine came down. That $3 million I lost killed me. It brought me back to reality because I could have lost my job.

    It was wild because it had never been done before. And it will never happen again so, yeah, adrenaline was flowing. How many people can say that they’ve punched a fan?

    Do you know all the stuff that they say to us? The racist stuff they say to us? We get the N-word and people talking about our wives and family.

    Just because we make a lot of money we’re supposed to be the bigger person? Fans tell us that our kids are ugly and that they should have thrown our mothers in jail for having us. That’s not disrespectful?

    I’ve been in a lot of fights and done some things I shouldn’t have done, but I’ve never sold drugs or been locked up, so for people to think that way about me isn’t right.

    They had life-size posters of me in Utah with me behind bars. Before the situation with Jamaal Tinsley, I had never been in jail, and I’m from the projects!

    Do you regret the Palace brawl?

    No. Because the idea of Ron laying in the stands unconscious with all his teeth knocked out … no way. That whole arena was against and I didn’t have it in my heart not to do anything.

    What was it like in the locker room immediately after that?

    The funniest thing in the world. Ron leans over to me and asks me if we’re going to get into trouble! I looked at him like he was crazy. We laughed so hard. Jamaal fell out of his locker.

    I looked at Ron and asked him, “Do you realize what we just did? We’re lucky if we have a job tomorrow.”

    We just went into the stands. We just banged out on fans. Are you serious? Trouble? I couldn’t believe he asked me that.

    How did you get through all that?

    When Donnie Walsh was in Indiana with me, he had my back. He knew my heart and knew what kind of person I was. I would have never went in the stands on my own. I would have never shot up a strip club on my own.

    It was always to help somebody, so when people say that type of stuff, it definitely pisses me off.

    So what happened with the strip club incident?

    I was there with Jamaal and some friends just for a night of fun and everything was cool. At the end of the night, I was in my car ready to leave.

    Then I seen Jamaal walk out of the club with some guy walking behind him with hands in his back pocket like he was fixing to shoot him.

    I hopped out of my car with my gun. I had a gun license at the time so it was all good. People think I was shooting up the place willy-nilly, but my gun was registered.

    I saw the guy with his hand in his pocket so I cocked my gun and put it in his face. I slapped him with the gun and we got to fighting before I realized they had planned to jump Jamaal.

    I’ve been in too many club fights not to know what’s going on. I’m not going to get hit from behind, stomped out and just be laying there. So all of a sudden all these cars pull up and I let off a couple warning shots, like telling everyone to back up.

    After that had happened, dude had jumped in his car and planned on trying to kill me. He hit me with his car. He drove straight into me and I flipped up in the air and landed face-first on the ground and knocked all my teeth out.

    I hopped right up and lit his whole car up. I didn’t think twice because I’m figuring he tried to smoke Jamaal.

    This is not an everyday situation. Were you worried that you could have killed somebody?

    No, because he tried to kill me. I knew it was self-defense. He hit me with his car at 45 mph in the parking lot. He tried to kill me. I was cool. I didn’t have one drink that night.

    As I was walking to my car and he was coming straight for me, I’m glad I was sober where I could think, and I just turned sideways. I hit the windshield and flipped up in the air; then I hit the ground.

    I had to get plastic surgery on my lips with no anesthesia, with all my teeth gone. Can you imagine how painful that is?

    Your career could have ended that night.

    That night. That’s why I know I’m here for a reason. My life is bigger than basketball.


    Basketball isn't played with computers, spreadsheets, and simulations. ChicagoJ 4/21/13

  • #2
    Re: In the words of Stephen Jackson...

    Really cool, thanks for posting.

    Jackson definitely has a way with words. Had things gone differently I could easily see him being a writer. He's got a strong author's voice and is a great storyteller, pretty rare skills.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: In the words of Stephen Jackson...

      Originally posted by King Tuts Tomb View Post
      Really cool, thanks for posting.

      Jackson definitely has a way with words. Had things gone differently I could easily see him being a writer. He's got a strong author's voice and is a great storyteller, pretty rare skills.

      WTF? Jackson a writer? What kind of authors are you reading? Pretty ridiculous that he enjoyed punching fans and that they were all laughing about it in the locker room. Unfortunately shows the mentality of a lot of young NBA players.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: In the words of Stephen Jackson...

        Originally posted by presto123 View Post
        WTF? Jackson a writer? What kind of authors are you reading? Pretty ridiculous that he enjoyed punching fans and that they were all laughing about it in the locker room. Unfortunately shows the mentality of a lot of young NBA players.
        I guess it's hard not to be judgmental on someone who's actions basically torpedoed the Pacers, but if you see it from his point of view (and I think the interview does a great job of that), you'd see that he had no intention to damage the Pacers at all. Arguably, it was Ron and Jamaal, respectively, who were really at fault in the two incidents discussed, and SJax was sucked into both because of his "we ride together" philosophy. And, it must be said, making both situations worse by his actions. But in another situation, SJax could very well have ended up being regarded in a much better light. Though his later shenanigans with the Warriors (demanding a contract extension, etc) would have pretty much killed his positive rep at that point, if he had any.

        I dunno, I guess I've moved on from the Brawl years, and could regard the main characters with some dispassion. I really liked that Grantland piece that interviewed a lot of the major participants/observers.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: In the words of Stephen Jackson...

          Originally posted by presto123 View Post
          WTF? Jackson a writer? What kind of authors are you reading?
          Good ones.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: In the words of Stephen Jackson...

            One name from the brawl remains... Donnie Walsh....
            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


            • #7
              Re: In the words of Stephen Jackson...

              Wow. There were some real gems in that piece.

              "Are we gonna get in trouble?"
              "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: In the words of Stephen Jackson...

                This wasn't self defense, he started it by slapping an unarmed man with his gun and then firing it off in the parking lot. I'd run the SOB over too!

                Screw you Jack!
                Garbage players get 1st round picks, (WTF)! All of the NBA must hate the Pacers! LOL

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: In the words of Stephen Jackson...

                  Originally posted by McKeyFan View Post
                  Wow. There were some real gems in that piece.

                  "Are we gonna get in trouble?"
                  Jackson's told that story before. http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...-malice-palace

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: In the words of Stephen Jackson...

                    As easy as it is to cringe at some of those quotes, who here wasn't immediately thrilled when Ron turned around an punched Turtle (and who wasn't shocked when he didn't go down for the count)? Not to mention JO's 'Finish Him!' move.

                    Aside from everything else, I firmly believe Jax would've been accepted, if not loved here if he wasn't seen so much to be yapping at the refs instead of getting back on D and continually getting in Carlisle's face. On a team with Tinsley and JO, we knew he played hurt and aside from occaissional shot selection issues, played well. We could've layed the other issues at the feet of Ron and Jamaal.
                    "I mean, you'd walk into our dressing room and run into Mel Daniels holding a .45 -- it makes you wonder."

                    Bob Netolicky

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: In the words of Stephen Jackson...

                      Stephen Jackson has a couple good qualities.

                      Otherwise, you best just stay away.
                      "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: In the words of Stephen Jackson...

                        There's a correlation in both of these incidents. Jackson claims he headed off disaster...either Ron getting beat up in the stands or Tinsley getting mugged.

                        First, how does he know that's going to happen and who the H is going to beat up Ron Artest? 99% of the fans are not going to take swings at an NBA player even if they're in the stands. Jackson made a very false assumption there.

                        Second, I followed Rasheed Wallace one time in downtown Indy. I'm glad Jack wasn't a Piston. Here Jack assumes this guy is going to mug Tinsley and he might have been right. But who knows? Why pull out a gun in that scenario and once again escalate a situation?

                        That's why this all blew up. Jack escalated both of these situations.

                        BTW, Tinsley and Jackson are free to go to a strip club on W38th Street, but with those millions there comes a price. They probably should have paid security personnel to ensure their safety and they would have never had these problems.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: In the words of Stephen Jackson...

                          Originally posted by wintermute View Post
                          I guess it's hard not to be judgmental on someone who's actions basically torpedoed the Pacers, but if you see it from his point of view (and I think the interview does a great job of that), you'd see that he had no intention to damage the Pacers at all.
                          Oh well, that just completely changes everything. Now that I know he didn't MEAN to do any damage, everything is good now.
                          Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: In the words of Stephen Jackson...

                            The guy is gasoline, and whenever a fire sparked he did what you would expect. Good heart, though.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: In the words of Stephen Jackson...

                              Stephen Jackson is a dangerous person. He is ready to fight, and kill if necessary. Anytime. Anywhere.

                              Comment

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