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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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Candace does it again! - Indiana Pacers have eventful trip

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  • #1

    Candace does it again! - Indiana Pacers have eventful trip

    http://www.indystar.com/story/sports...ckner/3884179/

    PORTLAND/TURBULENT NORTHWEST SKIES/ SALT LAKE CITY – Every road trip offers a story and this five-game journey through the Western Conference has definitely provided good material on the Indiana Pacers. There have been rough landings on snowy afternoons and stalled buses somewhere in Texas and the worst of it isn't over – the Pacers still have to face the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City for back-to-back weekend games.

    We'll get to the Pacers' travel nightmares in a bit but let's focus on one of the greatest joys of road trips, and that's catching up with family, old friends and acquaintances. Often times, after games, impromptu reunions happen in the arena hallways.

    Sometimes they don't pan out…

    After the Pacers defeated Utah on Wednesday night, Jazz guard John Lucas Jr. thumbed through his phone while standing outside the visitor's locker room. He waited for roughly half a minute for his friend and former Chicago Bulls teammate C.J. Watson but when a ball boy came out to announce that Watson was still in the shower, Lucas bounced. "Tell him I said call me," Lucas told the ball boy. He was still holding his phone, so I guess simply texting Watson that very message did not cross Lucas' mind.

    Other times, players sneak in some family visits…

    There are several Pacers with California ties. So when the team kicked off the trip against the Los Angeles Clippers, the Sunday post game looked like a family reunion. Danny Granger Sr. rode to Staples on his Harley to visit his son. Solomon Hill punted all the ticket requests to his father to handle. Orlando Johnson finished dressing and said his brother and niece were waiting for him to stop by and say 'hello.' And all the Georges also all gathered outside the locker room to see their Paul.

    Then there are the homecomings that work out better than expected…

    I covered the Portland Trail Blazers last year, so it was nice to get a few hugs from the friendly arena security workers and red-vested ushers. However, Pacers coach Frank Vogel clearly did not understand how mind-blowingly popular I was in Portland.

    "How many people you've got coming tonight, Candace?" Vogel asked during pre game media availability.

    "Ticket requests?" I responded and after a dramatic pause: "Zero."

    "Zero!? So all your friends are coming?" Vogel teased, inciting laughter from the gathered reporters.

    Touché, Vogel. Touché.

    The true Homecoming King was none other than Indiana assistant coach Nate McMillan. After the Moda Center had emptied out except for the arena workers and the lucky ones with guest passes, McMillan walked back out through the tunnel. He had a whole crew – "boosters from Seattle," he called them – smiling and anticipating a visit from their former coach. The devoted fans traveled to Portland just to see McMillan back in the Northwest.

    Throughout that entire day, McMillan felt the love. When he walked out of his downtown hotel, McMillan heard fans shout 'thank you!' for his more than six seasons there as head coach. And when he sat on the visitor's bench for the first time since being dismissed as Blazers' head coach nearly two years ago, McMillan heard nothing – and that's a good thing. No boos, no razzing.

    But McMillan wore the poker face as his image flashed across the scoreboard, without warning, and the 19,000-plus fans inside the Moda Center warmly welcomed him back. It was before the start of the third quarter, and the camera focused on McMillan for an extended time. The longer the shot remained, the louder the applause and cheers grew. But McMillan was in full coach mode and never noticed that the rousing ovation was for him.

    "I didn't know it until I looked at Lance (Stephenson)," McMillan said. "I hear the crowd but I'm looking at Lance and Lance points up at the scoreboard and I look up and right when I look up, they were taking me off."

    I talked with McMillan long after the game, and then, finally, the appreciation was showing all over his face.

    "You always wonder what it's going to be like, how people are going to receive you. When things happened here, I think everybody understood that it was time for change, including me. It wasn't any bitter feelings toward the organization and I don't think they really felt that way towards me (either)," McMillan said. "(But) you just don't know. You're kind of sweating all day… When you first walk out, you're like, 'what's going to happen?' Especially behind the visitor's bench – what they do say to opposing coaches and players? I didn't hear anything. Everything was good. When I walked into halftime, I heard a few people: 'Thank you, Nate!' and 'Coach Mac!' It's still Coach Mac."

    Though there has been much turnover in the organization since McMillan coached in Portland, he spoke about how all the old faces stopped by to see him. Even a new face made a visit.

    Near the end of our conversation, Portland's second-year point guard Damian Lillard walked up to greet McMillan.

    "Hey," McMillan said, grabbing Lillard's hand. "Keep doing what you're doing. You've done some special things here."

    Lillard: "'Preciate it!"

    McMillan: "All the best. (Then, the two bro hugged)

    "Stay healthy," McMillan said, finishing up.

    ***

    Though NBA teams fly in luxury, surely nobody would trade places with the Pacers' trip from hades last night.

    Several members of the Pacers organization took to Twitter to post updates on the long, strange trip to the Texas. First, fog in San Antonio forced the team plane to take a detour and land in Houston. Then when the Pacers boarded a charter bus to complete the more than 3 ½ hour road trip to San Antonio, the bus had issues. Notwithstanding, Roy Hibbert posted a video on Instagram of Watson trapped in the restroom.

    The always-entertaining Yahoo Ball Don't Lie gathered all the highlights here. So you know about the grounded plane and What A Burger pitstop, but you might not have known that the team had a previous scare during their arrival to snowy Salt Lake City.

    The best thing about this story – ask any of the Pacers and they'd tell you how the other guy was frightened during the rough landing. Several players offered their different versions after the win over the Jazz.

    "Ohhh! It was rough," Hibbert exclaimed.

    Vogel, who was working his way down the post-game spread, didn't take his eyes off the meatballs to offer this:

    "I was texting my goodbyes," he said.

    Hibbert continued: "I was sleeping then all of a sudden it just started rumbling for like 10 seconds straight. The rookie grabbed me on my leg –"

    "Yo! What's going on over there," Solomon Hill responded when he heard his name being besmirched.

    Hibbert to Hill: "You wasn't shook on the plane ride over here, though?"

    Hill: "Nah!"

    Hibbert: "You were shook! You were like, 'Oh Ohhhh!'"

    Hill: "I put my seatbelt on!"

    Rasual Butler: "I saw all y'all sit up straight."

    George Hill said he soldiered through the turbulence: "I was just ready to go over to that black box." But according to Hill's overdramatic and fictional version, Butler was, shall we say, concerned.

    "Everybody was scared! I think 'Sual had a tear. I think 'Sual was crying," Hill said loud enough so that Butler could hear him across the room.

    "I was over here writing my will," Paul George chimed in

    "'Sual was crying though! 'Sual was crying!" Hill joked, then continued fabricating an extremely emotional Butler: "'I JUST WANT ONE MORE CHRISTMAS! JUST ONE MORE CHRISTMAS!'"

    The Pacers survived the bumpy ride and are now safe in San Antonio.
    This some good ****. The plane ride story has me cracking up (since they did arrive safely in the end)!
    "Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

    "And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Candace does it again! - Indiana Pacers have eventful trip

    I covered the Portland Trail Blazers last year, so it was nice to get a few hugs from the friendly arena security workers and red-vested ushers. However, Pacers coach Frank Vogel clearly did not understand how mind-blowingly popular I was in Portland.

    "How many people you've got coming tonight, Candace?" Vogel asked during pre game media availability.

    "Ticket requests?" I responded and after a dramatic pause: "Zero."

    "Zero!? So all your friends are coming?" Vogel teased, inciting laughter from the gathered reporters.

    Touché, Vogel. Touché.
    My favorite part.

    I hope the fun of covering the Pacers means she sticks with us for a long time, though I'm sure the miserly ways of Gannett will drive her off very soon.
    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

    • #3
      Re: Candace does it again! - Indiana Pacers have eventful trip

      These are so good!

      I wonder if she wrote like this in Portland. Seeing some personality behind the scenes makes it easier to connect to the players. I'm surprised we haven't seen more of this style in the past, but I'm glad it's here now.

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Candace does it again! - Indiana Pacers have eventful trip

        Awesome. Really like her writing.

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Candace does it again! - Indiana Pacers have eventful trip

          Originally posted by BillS View Post
          My favorite part.

          I hope the fun of covering the Pacers means she sticks with us for a long time, though I'm sure the miserly ways of Gannett will drive her off very soon.
          Haha I thought so too.

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Candace does it again! - Indiana Pacers have eventful trip

            Both this and the Yahoo! article are hilarious. That also explains why some of my players didn't perform amazingly in Utah
            Originally posted by IrishPacer
            Empty vessels make the most noise.

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Candace does it again! - Indiana Pacers have eventful trip

              I wonder - she actually seems to be laid back enough that it might be constructive to invite her to the in-season PD Gathering.
              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

              • #8
                Re: Candace does it again! - Indiana Pacers have eventful trip

                Originally posted by BillS View Post
                I wonder - she actually seems to be laid back enough that it might be constructive to invite her to the in-season PD Gathering.
                I bet she'd show up. She seems pretty damn cool.

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: Candace does it again! - Indiana Pacers have eventful trip

                  Rarely is there 100% agreement on PD. Candace might be a first.

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: Candace does it again! - Indiana Pacers have eventful trip

                    Originally posted by BillS View Post
                    My favorite part.

                    I hope the fun of covering the Pacers means she sticks with us for a long time, though I'm sure the miserly ways of Gannett will drive her off very soon.
                    I keep saying it, she is too good to NOT have a national columnist gig somewhere before long.
                    "Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

                    "And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Re: Candace does it again! - Indiana Pacers have eventful trip

                      Originally posted by Sandman21 View Post
                      I keep saying it, she is too good to NOT have a national columnist gig somewhere before long.
                      I want to see how she does on camera. Cuz if she plays well there put her, Sage Steel, and Doris Burke on a national network panel and watch people LOSE THEIR MINDS. In spite of all of them being very good at their jobs.

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Re: Candace does it again! - Indiana Pacers have eventful trip

                        speaking of the PD hangout deals. we're in the 21st century now, we could do one of those Google Hangout thingamabobs

                        Comment

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