Announcement

Collapse

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.
See more
See less

This Board

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • This Board

    I was hoping someone could give me a brief history lesson regarding this board. I have been impressed with how well-established it is, and how many senior members there are.

    The temperament is fairly civil here, too. Many well-established message boards have members that take things a bit too seriously. Sometimes they are overprotective and distrusting of new faces, but overall this place seems reasonable in that regard.

    Who is the founder? Who are some of the original members? Did Pacers Digest come first, and the other forums (like Colts, IU, etc) come later?

  • #2
    Re: This Board

    I know there have been previous threads on PDs history but I'm not sure where to find them search wise.

    Hicks (MStamper) actually started the first PD around 2003. I think the common reason was frustration over the Indy Star board just getting too crazy on both moderation and non moderation. I had posted there since 1998 and somehow got kicked off in 2003 because of a spat with a trolling Celtics fan. Hicks built us a life line so to speak for fans who didn't agree with the Star's approach and how they had kicked off several long time members for no reason. It was a crazy time.
    Last edited by RWB; 02-11-2013, 03:24 PM.
    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


    • #3
      Re: This Board

      Originally posted by RWB View Post
      I know there have been previous threads on PDs history but I'm not sure where to find them search wise.

      Hicks (MStamper) actually started the first PD around 2003. I think the common reason was frustration over the Indy Star board just getting too crazy on both moderation and non moderation. I had posted there since 1998 and somehow got kicked off in 2003 because of a spat with a trolling Celtics fan. Hicks built us a life line so to speak.
      I was not aware that Hicks was MStamper! I thought he had just been away like he said he was going to be...
      Nothing in life worth having comes easy.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: This Board

        If you want to see some original history try this.

        http://pacersdigest.proboards.com/in...play&thread=12

        Says I was a new member August 15th 2003. Wonder why it took me so long to register on the improved PD in 2004?
        Last edited by RWB; 02-11-2013, 03:48 PM.
        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


        • #5
          Re: This Board

          PD Episode IV: A New Hope

          It is a period of civil war.
          Rebel Pacer fans, striking
          from a hidden IP address, have won
          their first victory against
          the evil Indianapolis Star
          Forum Admins.

          During the battle, PD
          spies managed to steal secret
          plans to the Star's
          ultimate weapon, the FORUM
          SOFTWARE, an open source
          application with enough power
          to destroy an entire member
          base.

          Pursued by the Star's
          sinister agents, Hicks
          races toward Able Towers,
          custodian of the
          stolen code that can save his
          posters and restore
          freedom to the fanbase...
          BillS

          A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
          Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: This Board

            Yeah IIRC the moderators on IndyStar were these invisible people that moderated pretty much arbitrarily... threads got deleted for no reason, some people got banned while worse offenders were ignored, etc. PD was very much Hicks' (and a few others') reaction to that I believe.

            Hicks and the early mods he recruited really made a point early on to moderate fairly, transparently and in an engaged way. Honestly I think this simple (not easy, but simple) formula is the key to PD's success.

            I actually did a lot of the graphic design for the first version or two of PD (I'm not bragging, the latest versions are much better lol), Hicks was learning as he went, able volunteered to host the site for free (I believe he still does), everyone was chipping in in different ways.

            There were a lot of crazy features that came and went in the early days. There was sort of a blog/home page thing at one point; I did a couple issues of an "Onion"-like spoof Pacers news page; and of course the forum itself went through many many iterations. Once or twice for various reasons all the data / previous posts got lost (including the brawl I think?, but maybe I'm wrong), but now I think the archives go back to at least 2006, maybe earlier...

            I'm sure others here (Hicks, Peck, Shade, UB, etc) could give a fuller picture, my involvement dropped substantially after 2005 or so...

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: This Board

              RATS boards were over-run with ******** and no moderation at all. Piston fans were obnoxious to us and there was absolutely no control at all.

              I remember getting the PM from someone on the RATS board, I wanna say it was Hicks, but mighta been someone else way back in 2003-2004 saying "Hey, we're starting a new board to get away from all this crap, you are welcome to join." So I did. It was a little slow going in the first year, but quickly turned into the best Pacer forum out there in terms of good discussion and mostly control of the trouble-makers, although a few have slipped through the cracks... but eventually they get weeded out.
              There are two types of quarterbacks in the league: Those whom over time, the league figures out ... and those who figure out the league.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: This Board

                Originally posted by Kid Minneapolis View Post
                although a few have slipped through the cracks... but eventually they get weeded out.
                Hey now I think you would have to agree someone like Earl was a savant.
                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


                • #9
                  Re: This Board

                  Originally posted by MAStamper View Post
                  I suppose I could give it a try.

                  The details are sketchy because, well, my memory blows without someone helping me remember sometimes, so I don't remember all the "who said what" 's and things like that.

                  What I do know is we were all (the original members of PD mostly were, anyway) posting on IndyStar, and various things were turning people off from it bit by bit. There was some trolling and uncivil attitude, though not nearly as bad as it is now, but enough to bug some of us. The admins never communicated with anyone, they just randomly decided to address private complaints by banning people or deleting threads.

                  I decided I could do better than those clowns, and clean up the trolls and uncivil stuff while I was at it. So I found a free message board hosting site, and decided to give it a whirl. This was through proboards.com. The original PD still exists as "Site B" or "Pacers Digest II" for when this place is down for a few hours.

                  I quickly tried to match the colors of this new board to IS so people felt more familiar. Bit by bit people gave me a chance. The first to give me a shot was Shade, who had been banned from IS days before. Soon I PMed several of what I considered to be the best posters of IS, to see if they would give me a shot.

                  Over the first couple months most eventually made the switch, but it was by no means a certainty at the time. I was 1/4 the admin I am now (no experience, too immature, less decisive, etc), and early on PD was rough around the edges. A lot of young posters, who at the time dominated discussion, and the rules were not clear cut at the time, so immaturity and uncivil stuff was hit and miss.

                  What saved me, was I made a hell of a lucky choice in seeking an advisor, kerosene. He had PMed me early on with some friendly advice, and it proved to be gold. I made him an admin to help me out, and we convinced Jose Slaughter to help both of us.

                  This was the beginning of shaping things up, but again it was not a smooth transition, and it was a gradual change. Not long after, Shade joined the admin ranks.

                  It was around September when I think Peck committed, and being the MVP that he is, once he did that, a lot of people who were on the fence between IS and PD jumped ship to PD, and that's when I started to think this might really get somewhere.

                  It was around then, that I decided to throw my money into it. I bought webspace with a provider I thought at the time was decent, and I moved PD from proboards to my server space, using phpbb as the forum software. In the months that followed, Jose left the admin ranks, and btown joined them. We were doing a better job of establishing what we expected out of this place, and starting to form an identity by having more clear rules, more consistent admining, things like that.

                  In January, PD nearly died. Either by slimy actions of my host, or by an attacker who they were too incompetent to deal with, the forum was nailed and my host shut it down because whomever was attacking us, was attacking 100 other sites that shared the server, and since it was originating from PD, they shut me down.

                  We re-grouped on proboards, and I have to say I was depressed. I thought things might die right then and there. Then I got a PM from able. He amazed me with his offer to host at no charge, PD. A man true to his word, he set me up with a server space, and we setup a fresh phpbb forum. I was too ignorant of how it worked at the time, so I mistakenly didn't save the database from the previous phpbb board, so we had to start from scratch.

                  Since that time, things have steadily improved. We continued on phpbb until the end of our 2004 playoff run, and then we decided to try a new software called bbBoard2. On the surface it looked like it rocked, but as time went on, we kept having problems, bugs, and slow connections. Eventually, we dropped it and through the big contribution of TheSauceMaster, who happened to own a license, we switched to this vBulletin that we still use today. Needless to say, vBulletin rocks.

                  Throughout that time, there were definite ups and downs forum-wise from a user and admin standpoint, but I feel we were overall improving as we went along.

                  These days, I think PD speaks for itself for the most part. Trolls don't last, civil discussion is promoted, the rules are clear, we admins deal with any problems, complaints, issues promptly as best we can, and we have a kick-*** group of people that post here now. A blend of old and young, a lot of good people, a lot of basketball knowledge, and a lot of humor.

                  I know I'm missing big things, but that's what I think of first off the top of my head, and anything I couldn't get into without assistance or else I'd screw it up.

                  Shade and kerosene might be able to fill in some of the gaps better than me.
                  http://www.pacersdigest.com/showthre...hlight=history

                  There is also a TON in the Official PD FAQ thread stickied at the top of the forums.
                  Last edited by ECKrueger; 02-11-2013, 04:03 PM.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: This Board

                    Many years ago a young modern day Moses decided to lead other loyal Pacer fans to the land of more free expression against the evil Indystar Pacer board.

                    After many years of growth and weeding Moses recently yeilded control to others and rested after a job well done.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: This Board

                      SOMETIME STANKO WILL MAKING POST. BEFORE STANKO, THERE BEING NO REASON HAVE READ FORUM. STANKO COME INDIANA MAKE DUNK SHOT. BOOM IS BABY!
                      Anadolu Efes: http://www.euroleague.net/competitio...m?clubcode=IST

                      Rudy Férnandez: “Será difícil para Pau defender a Barac”

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: This Board

                        BOOM IS BABY?!???!?!!!

                        Oh my.


                        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


                        • #13
                          Re: This Board

                          Originally posted by J7F View Post
                          I was not aware that Hicks was MStamper! I thought he had just been away like he said he was going to be...
                          I knew it was by his language and in a thread he was replying to me and he said something like "maybe we can get Hicks to clarify" and I laughed at that cause I knew it was him. I thought whatever man I guess he thought I didn't know that he was MStamper. LoL
                          Garbage players get 1st round picks, (WTF)! All of the NBA must hate the Pacers! LOL

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: This Board

                            Originally posted by diamonddave00 View Post
                            Many years ago a young modern day Moses decided to lead other loyal Pacer fans to the land of more free expression against the evil Indystar Pacer board.

                            After many years of growth and weeding Moses recently yeilded control to others and rested after a job well done.
                            Thus Pacers Digest was finished, and all the host of it.
                            And in the tenth year Hicks ended his work which he had made; and he rested in the tenth year from all his work which he had made.

                            PD 2:1-2a

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: This Board

                              Originally posted by StankoLover216 View Post
                              SOMETIME STANKO WILL MAKING POST. BEFORE STANKO, THERE BEING NO REASON HAVE READ FORUM. STANKO COME INDIANA MAKE DUNK SHOT. BOOM IS BABY!
                              Stanko is as entertaining as the Olympics, and unfortunately posts about as often.
                              "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X