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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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Let's talk about something else

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  • #16
    Re: Let's talk about something else

    Kellogg (although many you will disagree based on Clark's ability to put up 20/10.)
    What made him among the worst? Honest question.
    This space for rent.

    Comment


    • #17
      Re: Let's talk about something else

      Became a Pacer fan in May of 1991:

      1st team (still my favorite team)

      M. Williams
      R. Miller
      C. Person
      D. Schrempf
      R. Smits


      2nd team (favorite individual players)

      J. Tinsley
      J. Rose
      R. Artest
      J. O'neal
      A. Davis


      3rd team (gotta include these guys)

      V. Fleming
      S. Jackson
      L. Thompson
      D. Davis
      J. Foster


      Last team

      P. Richardson
      B. Scott
      R. Mercer
      S. Mitchell
      S. Perkins

      I pretty much liked Scott and Perkins, but not as Pacers. Nothing against Richardson and Mitchell, I just preferred to keep the guys they replaced. I really, really disliked Mercer, though.

      Comment


      • #18
        Re: Let's talk about something else

        PG Mark Jackson
        SG Reggie Miller
        SF Derrick McKey
        PF Dale Davis
        C Rik Smits

        Bench

        PG Travis Best
        SG Fred Jones
        SF Ron Artest
        PF JO
        C Sam Perkins

        Comment


        • #19
          Re: Let's talk about something else

          Mark Jackson
          Reggie Miller
          Brad Miller
          Chuck P (his rookie year was unreal) (yes, I was there for his 40 ft. game winner!)
          JO

          bench

          Vern
          Dale
          Steve Stipanovich (started being a big fan the year he was drafted)
          Tinsley
          Smits ( always felt sorry for Rik, never seemed to fit in )
          Artest
          Travis

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: Let's talk about something else

            Originally posted by Los Angeles
            Reggie Miller on the bench? You !

            If I wasn't afraid of being run out on a rail I really wanted to put Ricky Sobers as my second favorite shooting guard, but I knew I'd be in big enough trouble not listing Reggie as # 1.


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

            Comment


            • #21
              Re: Let's talk about something else

              Oh, I forgot to put my bottom five up there. Now remember this is not based on ability, this is based on being my least favorite.

              PG- Travis Best
              SG- Butch Carter
              SF- Jalen Rose
              PF- LaSalle Thompson
              C- James Edwards

              Bench

              PG- Vern Fleming (Hard to put him here but I didn't like him as a pg.)
              SG- Dudley Bradley
              SF- Ron Artest
              PF- Mike Bantom
              C- Len Elmore


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

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: Let's talk about something else

                Peck, please explain to me how DD can achieve God-like status while Tank and Len Elmore are on your least-favorite list?

                I'm sure there is a good reason, but I see a lot of similarities among all three players.
                Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
                Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
                Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
                Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
                And life itself, rushing over me
                Life itself, the wind in black elms,
                Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you

                Comment


                • #23
                  Re: Let's talk about something else

                  Originally posted by Jay@Section204
                  Peck, please explain to me how DD can achieve God-like status while Tank and Len Elmore are on your least-favorite list?

                  I'm sure there is a good reason, but I see a lot of similarities among all three players.

                  Oh God no!!!!!! Tank was the biggest talker & non-doer on the planet earth. He always kept talking about how guys on the team didn't suck it up & play tough basketball & then would go out & grab 4 rebounds in 30 min. of play. He was very very similar to Tony in that regard. He was a crafty defender on occasion but he was such a big guy I always had a problem with how little he controlled the paint area.

                  Len on the other hand is a bad choice for me. You said we couldn't pick end of the benchers or trust me I would have gone with John Edwards, Greg Dreiling, Stuart Gray, etc. etc. Everybody but Granville because I actually liked him.

                  Len just happened to be the only center I could remember that started for us other than Stipo, Rik.

                  I guess I forgot Big Smooth. I wasn't big fan of his, but it wasn't his fault. I liked him as a veteran coming off of the bench on the finals team but I didn't like him as the starter the next season. I guess I have to stick with Elmore.

                  Oh Hell, I totally forgot Roby. There, that is now my official backup on the all suck team, Rick Roby.

                  Crap my head is totally up my @ss today, I also forgot Tom Owens. He actually will replace James Edwards as the starter on the all suck team & Roby will be his backup.


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

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Re: Let's talk about something else

                    Originally posted by Jay@Section204
                    Pick your favorite all-time, all-Pacers team (can include ABA guys).

                    As of right now, my team would be:

                    PG - Jackson; Tinsley; [Vern, Don Buse, or Freddie Lewis for "12th man"]
                    SG - Reggie; Rah-jah (up until just a season or two ago, I still had Roger starting)
                    SF - Chuck; Billy Knight; Netolicky (IMO, Chuck is NOT negotiable)
                    PF - JO; Big Mac (duh)
                    C - Mel; Rik (even more obvious)

                    And just for the fun of it, an all-time worst team, consisting of regular/ rotation players (not just the worst end-of-bench scrubs, that's too easy):

                    PG - Pooh; Travis
                    SG - Stansberry; McCloud
                    SF - Bender; Kellogg (although many you will disagree based on Clark's ability to put up 20/10.)
                    PF - Herb, Waymon
                    C - Oh my goodness, we could probably name twelve guys right here, forget the other positions. Tom Owens. Granville Waiters. Stuart Grey. Truthfully, James Edwards sucked and was a foul-prone klutz when he was with the Pacers. Dwayne Schintzius, except for one game in Orlando when Rik was suspended. Greg Dreiling (although personally, I liked Greg). Jon Tabak. Pollard. Truthfully, just about every C that ever played for the Pacers not named Daniels, Smits, Stipanovich, Miller or, hopefully, Harrison.
                    I would pretty much go with your favorite team with maybe the exception of Jackson. I know, I know - crucify me. I probably could have moved any of the bracketed players over. If the others had seen Brown play he would have been on everyone's team. Add Workman to the mix as a last minute pick-up. What's not to like about Woody? And as the enforcer I would add George Peeples. He always had Mel's back.

                    I was surprised at your pick of Kellogg on the all-worst team. He was a pretty good player until he wrecked his knee. Replace him with Reggie Harding. You remember - the 7-footer who was shot while breaking and entering.
                    The best exercise of the human heart is reaching down and picking someone else up.

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: Let's talk about something else

                      Originally posted by Anthem
                      What made him among the worst? Honest question.
                      Primarily the losing. He had the uncanny ability to drop 20 points and grab 11 rebounds while still having absolutely no affect whatsoever on the outcome of the game. He was a stat-sheet stuffer, but not at all like KG or Duncan that stuff the stat sheets while dominating the game. I'm not even sure he was the best player on a bad team, just a guy that could put up big but meaningless numbers.

                      He was another guy that I never wanted on the team. He and Herb combined to go 9-9 against the Big Ten. Well, we already had Herb... and since those two allegedly great forwards could only win half thier games in the Big Ten, I was pretty sure they also weren't going to be able to beat NBA-caliber competition on a regular basis.

                      Maybe, if we didn't already have Herb, my view on him would be different. But IMO, Clark's knee injury was one of the best things that ever happened to the Pacers, because it allowed Chuck Person to play important minutes as a rookie. Remember, when we drafted him, everybody wanted to ask why we drafted another SF when we already had Clark and some people thought Waymon, who was truly a 6'7" center, would also have to play SF. Clark probably would've put up bigger numbers than Chuck that season, but Chuck lifted a perpetual twenty-odd win team to 0.500. Although it took a few more years for that team to become a perennial playoff team, it all started with the 1986-87 team, the playoff series against Altanta, and the budding Person-Dominique rivalary.

                      Lots of others will blame the losing on Clark's teammates, but Fleming, Herb, and Stipanovich were all starters in the 1987 playoffs, and Tisdale was the sixth man.

                      Anyway, that's just my opinion of Clark, as a Pacer. I know that many of you will not agree with it but that's cool.
                      Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
                      Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
                      Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
                      Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
                      And life itself, rushing over me
                      Life itself, the wind in black elms,
                      Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Re: Let's talk about something else

                        Originally posted by Peck
                        Oh God no!!!!!! Tank was the biggest talker & non-doer on the planet earth. He always kept talking about how guys on the team didn't suck it up & play tough basketball & then would go out & grab 4 rebounds in 30 min. of play. He was very very similar to Tony in that regard. He was a crafty defender on occasion but he was such a big guy I always had a problem with how little he controlled the paint area.

                        Len on the other hand is a bad choice for me. You said we couldn't pick end of the benchers or trust me I would have gone with John Edwards, Greg Dreiling, Stuart Gray, etc. etc. Everybody but Granville because I actually liked him.

                        Len just happened to be the only center I could remember that started for us other than Stipo, Rik.

                        I guess I forgot Big Smooth. I wasn't big fan of his, but it wasn't his fault. I liked him as a veteran coming off of the bench on the finals team but I didn't like him as the starter the next season. I guess I have to stick with Elmore.

                        Oh Hell, I totally forgot Roby. There, that is now my official backup on the all suck team, Rick Roby.

                        Crap my head is totally up my @ss today, I also forgot Tom Owens. He actually will replace James Edwards as the starter on the all suck team & Roby will be his backup.
                        I don't consider Dreiling an end-of-the-bench player, he was the starter during the 1991 playoffs and when we got swept by Boston in 1992, many people thought the biggest difference was re-inserting Rik into the lineup at the expense of Dreiling.

                        I agree, the Rik and Tank combination was probably one of the softest PF/C combinations in league history. I liked the idea of Tank in theory, but on the court DD was much closer to what Tank was actually supposed to do.
                        Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
                        Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
                        Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
                        Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
                        And life itself, rushing over me
                        Life itself, the wind in black elms,
                        Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: Let's talk about something else

                          My favorite five:

                          Freddie Lewis
                          Reggie Miller
                          Ron Artest
                          Jermaine O'Neal
                          Rik Smits [yes, I know Mel was better - Rik gets my personality vote.]

                          Roger Brown deserves a starting spot.

                          I still haven't gotten over Big George going to Philly.

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Re: Let's talk about something else

                            Favorites -

                            PG - Done Buse
                            SG - Reggie Miller / Roger Brown (tie)
                            SF - Billy Knight
                            PF - George McGinnis
                            C - Mel Daniels

                            Best -
                            Possibly substitue Alex English for Billy Knight (tossup)

                            Worst -

                            Peck, how could you ever forget Reggie Harding at C?

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Re: Let's talk about something else

                              I want to explain my thoughts on Rik Smits:

                              I liked him for the first 2 seasons, he had good hands, a nice shot, and was surpirsingly mobile for such a big guy especially back then. But then someone had the lamebrain idea that he should put on some weight, which he did and from that time forward he had knee, ankle, and foot problems. Luckily when Larry Brown took over he ordered Rik to lose some weight.

                              Smits might go down as the Pacers best midrange shooter of all time, his post game was OK, but his midrange shooting was excellent.

                              Smits probably is one f the very nicest guys ever to put on a pacers uniform, of course he was too nice and that hurt him on the court, and he was brutalized in the media and with the fans in years 3 through 5 or 6.

                              I just hated Rik's defense and rebounding, watching hyim try to help out on pick and rolls and watching him try to guard anyone still gives me nightmares and that is why to this day I love quick and mobile big guys.

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Re: Let's talk about something else

                                The issue, though, wasn't Rik's size. He was trying to play defense by using his hands and not his feet, and the other centers could easily move him all around the paint. Because he started playing so late in life, he never did master the fundamentals and footwork of defense. Just because you're 7'4" doesn't mean you should try to block every shot (or even *any* shots); thus he would get in foul trouble frequently, but mostly when he was helping against whomever just blew past Reggie or another failed Micheal Williams attempt at a steal.

                                Now when Larry Brown got ahold of him, the one brilliant thing was that he forced Rik to play in the low post. And we learned that Rik was pretty darn good in the post.

                                Larry Bird basically used Rik an oversized SF. And Rik, although he could hit a faceup 18-footer as well as any bigman that's ever played, just wasn't as effective as he was in 1994 and 1995, playing in the post, before the first foot surgery.

                                In my opinion, Rik was only in his prime for about two seasons.
                                Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
                                Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
                                Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
                                Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
                                And life itself, rushing over me
                                Life itself, the wind in black elms,
                                Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you

                                Comment

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