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Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.

Rule #1

Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:

"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"

"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"

"He/she is just delusional"

"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"

"I'm going to take a moment to point and / laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"

"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.

We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.

Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.

That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.

A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.

There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.

Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.

In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.

Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.

If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!

All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.

Rule #2

If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.

The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.

The right places to do so are:

A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.

B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.

If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.

Rule #3

If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.

When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.

B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.

To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!

Rule #4

Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

Rule #5

When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.

An example:

If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star

Rule #6

We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.

The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

Rule #7

Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

Rule #8

We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

Rule #9

Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.

Rule #10

We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.

Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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IndyStar Article on the Resurgence of the Pacers: Inside story of the Pacers turnaround!!

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  • #16
    Re: IndyStar Article on the Resurgence of the Pacers: Inside story of the Pacers turnaround!!

    Originally posted by PacersPride View Post
    what about Stinko Stipulavich. is that guy ready yet??
    There are other factors that affect why a Euro drafted Player may be "ready or not" and whether he will ever come over to the NBA ( buyout contract cost, willingness to sit on the bench as a "garbage" Big Man waiting for someone in front of them to get injured ).

    I'm guessing that Stanko could be more than ready to fill that 3rd Big Man spot...but I'm guessing that one of the main reasons that he isn't coming over ( or ever will ) is because of the latter reasons I mentioned.
    Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

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    • #17
      Re: IndyStar Article on the Resurgence of the Pacers: Inside story of the Pacers turnaround!!

      Stanko Barać is playing for Anadolu Efes Istanbul in Turkey. He is doing ok backing up Semih Erden.
      Originally posted by IrishPacer
      Empty vessels make the most noise.

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      • #18
        Re: IndyStar Article on the Resurgence of the Pacers: Inside story of the Pacers turnaround!!

        There's no doubt in my mind that Phil Richards is the Star's best sports writer. This is another one of his fantastic articles.

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        • #19
          Re: IndyStar Article on the Resurgence of the Pacers: Inside story of the Pacers turnaround!!

          Great article. Though I thought it was kinda weird the way they addressed the JO-TJ Ford trade. I call it that because at the time the major focus was getting a new point guard. He didn't even mention TJ in the article. I think most just thought of Roy as a throw in, another big with potential, of which we had gone through several. He was a great throw in for-sure, but I remember that trade being more about getting rid of a hobbled JO to clear cap and pick up a good starting quality PG while at it.

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          • #20
            Re: IndyStar Article on the Resurgence of the Pacers: Inside story of the Pacers turnaround!!

            Great article. I occasionally forget how painful it was for a while there. It has been a genuine pleasure to watch the group progress, mature, and experience success.
            ! Free Rick Sanchez !

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            • #21
              Re: IndyStar Article on the Resurgence of the Pacers: Inside story of the Pacers turnaround!!

              Larry Bird. He has easily become one of the most important non-players in our franchise's history. He took us further as a coach than anyone else in our NBA history, and now he is responsible for transforming this franchise from dumpster fire to elite. IMO, his moves as GM from 08-present saved the Pacers. This franchise would have been in deep trouble if we would have kept losing.

              I know that a lot of the old timers here didn't like Bird as a player in large part because of the locals wearing Celtic green to MSA back in the day. I admit that would have bugged me too. But I'm simply too young to remember Bird as a player. My knowledge of Bird is from watching old videos, so I have nothing but admiration for him as an immortal NBA legend. I'm glad that the Basketball Jesus is back in charge. He succeeds at every level of basketball.
              Last edited by Sollozzo; 11-23-2013, 12:46 PM.

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              • #22
                Re: IndyStar Article on the Resurgence of the Pacers: Inside story of the Pacers turnaround!!

                Wow. This article is really good.

                Larry Bird comes out as a great leader. Well we already knew that but still it's nice knowing some more details. I love that guy and wish I had a chance to milk him with questions over a 3 hour lunch or something.
                You can tell how much he is respected across not only the team but the whole of NBA. I think he was wrong for sticking too long with O'Brien but everything is forgiven and he has done much much much more good to this team. He has built a contending and hopefully a championship team.

                I loved this bit and really shows whet a great guy he is:
                "I didn't feel sorry for myself. I felt sorry for our fans; people who dedicated a lot of money and instead of going on vacation came in here and watched us play 41 times a year.

                "We had to change the culture. I knew our fan base was going to dwindle. Revenues weren't going to be where we wanted them at.

                "It was tough. I'd go into meetings where they were trying to sell tickets. I laid out everything to my owner (Herb Simon). I laid out everything to our marketing people. I said, 'Look, I don't want to deviate from this. There are going to be times you doubt me like everybody else and I understand that. It's part of it. But stick with me."


                I genuinely LOL'd at this moment:
                "I asked him if he had any interest in the job," Bird recalled. "He said, 'I don't know. I've got to think about that.'

                "I said, 'No. No. No. I'm asking you if you have an interest in the job. This is the NBA. I'll get somebody else. I don't care.'

                "I knew Frank was playing a little game. He wanted it but he didn't want to hurt (O'Brien's) feelings. He left. I called him and said, 'You've got the job.'

                "I told him to bring all the coaches to dinner that night. So we got everybody together and I got up and all I said was: 'Frank is in charge.'

                "(I said,) 'He's going to run the team but I want to tell all you guys right now, if I hear you say anything negative, other than coaching negativity about a bad pass or a bad screen, I'm going to fire you on the spot. I don't want any of that here. We're going to look at the future. We're going to be positive about the future.' "
                I imagine the scenery and the way he may talked to Frank and also cause I immediately remembered when he was interviewing Shaw for the job where he told him among the lines he was not interested in that Triangle **** offense.



                PS: Off topic but take some time and watch this interview with Simmons. Not much Indiana related but he talks a lot about the game( he is so spot on about Jordan and how he changed the team oriented game in the US) and even Peyton. You know he is a guy you want to pick his brain about anything sports related.

                Never forget

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                • #23
                  Re: IndyStar Article on the Resurgence of the Pacers: Inside story of the Pacers turnaround!!

                  Maybe someone here can recycle the threads related to Bird's 3-year plan just to look back and see how the opinions have changed about Bird's executive skills.

                  What I like about Bird is that he's a no-nonsense guy and he has a strong conviction to his decisions even if it meant making unpopular decisions. That's just fine leadership.

                  Is it possible for Bird to win Executive of the Year twice if in the regular season the Pacers finished 1st in the East? I believe that if it's possible he's one of the early top candidates for the award.

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                  • #24
                    Re: IndyStar Article on the Resurgence of the Pacers: Inside story of the Pacers turnaround!!

                    Originally posted by CableKC View Post
                    About the Copeland signing, there's a part of me that trusts Bird when it came to signing him. I know that Vogel has said that he's a Backup 4.....but I wonder if Bird looked at him this way as well when he decided to go after him. Specifically, does Bird look at him as a Backup PF that can stretch the floor or as a pure 3pt Shooting Role Player that can fill the Backup SF position?

                    Despite what some here on PD may think of what Copeland can do ( or more specifically what he can't do )....I am of the opinion that if Bird targets specific Players to go after, then he does so for a good reason. So, like always..."In Bird we trust".

                    Unfortunately, there's the reaslistic side of me that knows that Copeland is the only Player on this roster that I deem expendable to help clear Capspace to re-sign Lance next season WITHOUT going over the LT.

                    If Stephenson keeps playing the rest of the season the way he has the 1st 12 games, I'm not sure the Pacers will have the money available to re-sign him w/o going over the LT.

                    In the article, it says Lance could be a middle 1st rd pick now if the 2010 draft was re-done. I hollar BS, he'd be a top 10 pick and a probably a top 5 pick. He'd be right in there with PG, Cousins, Wall, and Monroe. Turner and Hayward are good players, but I like Lance better. This comes from someone who went Rumplestiltzskin over Bird picking Stephenson. I saw a future PR nightmare for the Pacers ready to happen. I can't begin to say how much I was wrong or how much I enjoy watching Lance play. He's a VERY important part of this team, and IMO more important to the future of the Pacers than Granger. JMOAA

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                    • #25
                      Re: IndyStar Article on the Resurgence of the Pacers: Inside story of the Pacers turnaround!!

                      Originally posted by Justin Tyme View Post
                      If Stephenson keeps playing the rest of the season the way he has the 1st 12 games, I'm not sure the Pacers will have the money available to re-sign him w/o going over the LT.

                      In the article, it says Lance could be a middle 1st rd pick now if the 2010 draft was re-done. I hollar BS, he'd be a top 10 pick and a probably a top 5 pick. He'd be right in there with PG, Cousins, Wall, and Monroe. Turner and Hayward are good players, but I like Lance better. This comes from someone who went Rumplestiltzskin over Bird picking Stephenson. I saw a future PR nightmare for the Pacers ready to happen. I can't begin to say how much I was wrong or how much I enjoy watching Lance play. He's a VERY important part of this team, and IMO more important to the future of the Pacers than Granger. JMOAA
                      That's why I am suggesting that Copeland is the odd man out and why I am suggesting that if we had to make a trade that he would be the one sent out.....hopefully for an expiring contract and cost nothing more than OJ or a second round pick.
                      Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

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                      • #26
                        Re: IndyStar Article on the Resurgence of the Pacers: Inside story of the Pacers turnaround!!

                        Originally posted by imawhat View Post
                        There's no doubt in my mind that Phil Richards is the Star's best sports writer. This is another one of his fantastic articles.

                        Yes I have thought that for several years

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                        • #27
                          Re: IndyStar Article on the Resurgence of the Pacers

                          Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
                          Larry Bird's gut told him it was time.

                          The Indiana Pacers had lost seven of their past eight games but that wasn't the stretch Bird was looking at. He was looking ahead. He saw a stretch of 10 games and figured coach Jim O'Brien could win at least seven of them.

                          More important, Bird thought a new coach could do the same.
                          This bothers me. How could Larry have been watching the same performances we all were and believe that the Pacers were going to win 7 of the next 10 games under JOB?

                          Unless Bird was going to instruct JOB to instantaneously implement a near 180 degree change in philosophy and completely stop all of his negativity toward many of the players (except for Posey of course), I find it doubtful that even JOB's strongest supporters would have thought that to be possible. Also, I doubt that anyone would have expected any new coach to do that well, either.

                          Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
                          Still, Bird felt deeply grateful. He felt O'Brien had established a system, a work ethos, a standard of expectation and execution with a young, emerging team.
                          If this were true, why did the sudden overwhelming change in attitude and performance happen immediately upon his departure?

                          Why did the players (aside from an immature Stephenson) embrace Vogel to the point that it seemed like they were willing to run through walls for him?

                          Why was the system changed (inside out smashmouth with increased emphasis on defense as opposed to fast paced 3 point focused offense with defense being deflections and trying to take charges when opponents inevitably attacked the rim at will due to the porous perimeter defense)?

                          Why was the standard of expectation and execution changed (Vogel nearly immediately proclaimed that he expected the Pacers to not just make the playoffs but also to be competitive in them and gave more freedom to the young players to make some mistakes without quickly benching them, while JOB coached as if he thought the Pacers had no hope because of having too few veterans)?

                          Otherwise, it was a well written piece.

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                          • #28
                            Re: IndyStar Article on the Resurgence of the Pacers: Inside story of the Pacers turnaround!!

                            Originally posted by Sollozzo View Post
                            Larry Bird. He has easily become one of the most important non-players in our franchise's history. He took us further as a coach than anyone else in our NBA history, and now he is responsible for transforming this franchise from dumpster fire to elite. IMO, his moves as GM from 08-present saved the Pacers. This franchise would have been in deep trouble if we would have kept losing.

                            I know that a lot of the old timers here didn't like Bird as a player in large part because of the locals wearing Celtic green to MSA back in the day. I admit that would have bugged me too. But I'm simply too young to remember Bird as a player. My knowledge of Bird is from watching old videos, so I have nothing but admiration for him as an immortal NBA legend. I'm glad that the Basketball Jesus is back in charge. He succeeds at every level of basketball.
                            Is there anyone else that has been so successful at all three levels: player/coach/management?
                            "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

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