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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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Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

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  • Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

    Just piggybacking off of Pecks' JFK assisantion thread. (I think an alien topic would be good too)

    Do you believe in ghosts?


    I'm interested in hearing some stories from people about situations they've been in. I've never personally had any experiences, although I really want to. I've almost started doubting myself already if it did though, thinking that maybe my mind will invent something that isn't there, because I would like for it to happen.

    My gf and I have been on a Ghost Adventures/Dead Files/Ghost Hunters/My Ghost Story Caught on Camera kick here for the past month or so. It's fully understood that those shows could easily be faked. I'm not sure, to be honest, although I tend to lean it's real. (Maybe not all the show, but the basis) Everytime I say I believe it, I feel dumber. Maybe that should be a hint.

    Any thoughts?
    Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

  • #2
    Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

    I believe that there are no haunted places, only haunted people.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

      The AA at our company says she has seen ghosts, angels, and all types of craziness. She is a fairly level headed person to in everything else and her stories are pretty bizarre, she has no reason to lie. She's the only person that's ever made me pause for even a second and consider that maybe it could be a possibility.


      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

        Originally posted by Trader Joe View Post
        The AA at our company says she has seen ghosts, angels, and all types of craziness. She is a fairly level headed person to in everything else and her stories are pretty bizarre, she has no reason to lie. She's the only person that's ever made me pause for even a second and consider that maybe it could be a possibility.
        I obviously don't know the woman you are talking about and I wouldn't accuse her of lying. Generally speaking, I don't think that people who believe in ghosts are "lying" about their experiences. I just think that people who inherently want to believe in ghosts are inclined to "see what they want to see" so to speak, i.e. they chalk up bizarre occurrences to ghosts and allow their minds to play tricks on them. I on the other hand don't believe in ghosts and have never had an experience with a ghost. Is that just a coincidence, or is that because my not believing means that I subconsciously don't allow my mind to attribute an occurrence to being the work of a ghost?

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

          I'm uncertain. I've had one thing happen to me that I suspect was paranormal, but I'm going to keep the specifics of that one to myself for personal reasons.

          Otherwise, I haven't had any encounters (never seen a ghost or whatnot) personally, but based on everything I've seen/read/listened to over the years, both by strangers (in books, interviews) and people I know and trust, it would not shock me if there's truth to ghosts.

          The problem is for any one piece of apparently legitimate paranormal happenings, there's hundreds if not thousands of instances of nonsense out there, so it's easy to see why many people think it's all crap. Almost all of it probably is.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

            Originally posted by Sollozzo View Post
            I obviously don't know the woman you are talking about and I wouldn't accuse her of lying. Generally speaking, I don't think that people who believe in ghosts are "lying" about their experiences. I just think that people who inherently want to believe in ghosts are inclined to "see what they want to see" so to speak, i.e. they chalk up bizarre occurrences to ghosts and allow their minds to play tricks on them. I on the other hand don't believe in ghosts and have never had an experience with a ghost. Is that just a coincidence, or is that because my not believing means that I subconsciously don't allow my mind to attribute an occurrence to being the work of a ghost?
            I am skeptical too. As a kid growing up I used to have sleep paralysis and night terrors a few times a year. Those were always pretty terrifying and I know some people attribute them to the paranormal, I just never really bought in.

            Anyway, as a skeptic it's a whole lot different listening to someone you believe has no reason to lie tell you a story than seeing a guy in an Affliction running through an abandoned house yelling at supposed ghost.s


            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

              I've never seen anything or had anything that creeped me out. I've seen things I can't explain for sure. Here's one recent one.

              This past December 8th, it would have been my mother's 70th Birthday. She passed away in 2007 pretty much immediately after turning 65 and getting her social security paperwork filed after a lifetime of working her fingers to the bone. I'll save the rest of that story for when someone starts a "God's cruel jokes" thread. Anyhow, she was born on December 8th 1942. I was very close with my mother, we would talk on the phone for hours at a time. This particular day was a Saturday. I hadn't worked on Saturday in more than 2 years and it's not common for anyone from my part of the company to work on weekends. I had just remembered earlier that morning about it being my mom's birthday and thought about her for a bit, then got to work. At lunch, I went down to the break room to grab a soda. I put two one dollar bills in the machine and got my soda. It spit some change back out. I look at the change and there's a 1942 nickel in there. You gotta be kidding me? A 70 year old coin just happens to make it to my hand on my mother's 70th birthday from the work machine on a day I'm not even supposed to be working? Those are absolutely insane odds for something like that to happen. No way do I believe it was coincidence or even an accident. I took that nickel and taped it to the cabinet above my desk.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

                I won't go into my 70 year old sister's story....it's very believable. I've had two instances of "odd' happenings.
                1) went to a friends home in southern In. for turkey hunting. They had rebuilt the old 3-story home to near original with stone fireplace in teh kitchen for cooking and hewn logs throughout. Theyclaimed to have a female ghost on the 3rd floor (where I was sleeping) but let me know she was more curious than anything. She never tried to scare or harm anyone...yada yada. When I went up to bed, I plugged in an electric alarm clock and set it on a table across the room from my bed. It never went off. The next morning, when I did wake up an hour late, I found the clock unplugged and the cord wrapped around and through the legs of the chair next to the table I had set the clock.
                2) We have a 21 year old home we had built so we have no reason to believe it's haunted but we keep hearing odd noises upstairs (why is it always upstairs when you are downstairs?) One night we heard what sounded like footsteps upstairs. It was loud and distinctive enough that our black lab , Becca, got up and walked over to the bottom of the stairs where she stood staring up the staircase. With a low growl her hackles stood straight up and remained like that for 3-4 minutes. Eventually we heard what sounded like footsteps moving away and Becca came back and lay down near us. (She knows she's not allowed upstairs so she made no attempt to go up there). That was the one and only time that has happend. UNfortunately, Becca has passed on and we no longer have her company.

                I have previously related my Three encounters with my gaurdian angel so no need to go into that here.
                Ever notice how friendly folks are at a shootin' range??.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

                  The one thing that I always go back to is that they say like 60% of our universe is made up of dark matter, which we cannot see. Being another whole world of "stuff" in and around us that we can't see, is kinda frightening and amazing all at the same time.
                  Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

                    Originally posted by indygeezer View Post
                    I won't go into my 70 year old sister's story....it's very believable. I've had two instances of "odd' happenings.
                    1) went to a friends home in southern In. for turkey hunting. They had rebuilt the old 3-story home to near original with stone fireplace in teh kitchen for cooking and hewn logs throughout. Theyclaimed to have a female ghost on the 3rd floor (where I was sleeping) but let me know she was more curious than anything. She never tried to scare or harm anyone...yada yada. When I went up to bed, I plugged in an electric alarm clock and set it on a table across the room from my bed. It never went off. The next morning, when I did wake up an hour late, I found the clock unplugged and the cord wrapped around and through the legs of the chair next to the table I had set the clock.
                    2) We have a 21 year old home we had built so we have no reason to believe it's haunted but we keep hearing odd noises upstairs (why is it always upstairs when you are downstairs?) One night we heard what sounded like footsteps upstairs. It was loud and distinctive enough that our black lab , Becca, got up and walked over to the bottom of the stairs where she stood staring up the staircase. With a low growl her hackles stood straight up and remained like that for 3-4 minutes. Eventually we heard what sounded like footsteps moving away and Becca came back and lay down near us. (She knows she's not allowed upstairs so she made no attempt to go up there). That was the one and only time that has happend. UNfortunately, Becca has passed on and we no longer have her company.

                    I have previously related my Three encounters with my gaurdian angel so no need to go into that here.
                    One of the big things you read is how dogs have a "sense" for paranormal stuff.


                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

                      My theory is actually that JFK was killed by a ghost.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

                        No

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

                          I have to see something for myself to really buy it.

                          When we travel on family vacations, my kids always like to do those popular ghost tours. They are always making fantastic claims, and sometimes if the narrator is really really good, a receptive crowd coupled with the power of suggestion makes people see what they want to see. We did one at the Alamo and the very personable guide had people believing that they were seeing a figure in a camera that made images based on temperature gradients. I saw only fuzzy blobs.

                          I think that people want to humanize all sorts of shapes that are not significant, like seeing J esus in your toasted bread or the virgin Mary in your rusty water heater.
                          The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

                            Originally posted by Since86 View Post
                            Just piggybacking off of Pecks' JFK assisantion thread. (I think an alien topic would be good too)

                            Do you believe in ghosts?


                            I'm interested in hearing some stories from people about situations they've been in. I've never personally had any experiences, although I really want to. I've almost started doubting myself already if it did though, thinking that maybe my mind will invent something that isn't there, because I would like for it to happen.

                            My gf and I have been on a Ghost Adventures/Dead Files/Ghost Hunters/My Ghost Story Caught on Camera kick here for the past month or so. It's fully understood that those shows could easily be faked. I'm not sure, to be honest, although I tend to lean it's real. (Maybe not all the show, but the basis) Everytime I say I believe it, I feel dumber. Maybe that should be a hint.

                            Any thoughts?

                            No.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Do you believe in ghosts/paranormal?

                              Originally posted by Slick Pinkham View Post
                              We did one at the Alamo and the very personable guide had people believing that they were seeing a figure in a camera that made images based on temperature gradients. I saw only fuzzy blobs.
                              Kind of like watching the sun shine through your blinds and seeing particles floating in the air and yet in the shadow you see nothing.
                              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....

                              Comment

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