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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"

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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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NYT: Pacers’ Stephenson: Born in Brooklyn, Blooming in Indiana

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  • NYT: Pacers’ Stephenson: Born in Brooklyn, Blooming in Indiana

    Not a whole lot of new info here, but some interesting notes nonetheless in this article about Lance from the New York Times.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/24/sp...n-indiana.html

    Pacers’ Stephenson: Born in Brooklyn, Blooming in Indiana

    By HARVEY ARATON

    Lance Stephenson prepped for his pre-Christmas return to Brooklyn, the borough of his youth, with a festive Sunday night in Indianapolis, where, as a basketball player, he has, by leaps and bounds, appeared to grow up.

    In an Indiana Pacers rout of the Boston Celtics, Stephenson filled the box score with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, his third triple-double of what has been a breakout season for the player once celebrated on film as “Born Ready.”

    This, of course, was high school hyperbole bordering on unwitting parody, and too often as applied to New York City basketball prodigies a self-immolating malady. Fortunately for Stephenson, who not long ago seemed on a fast track to failure, he has developed in a secure N.B.A. environment, antithetical to what currently exists in his native New York.

    “He has totally reinvented himself,” said Tom Konchalski, the Queens-based scout and master of scholastic recruiting, who knows New York players better than most. “He plays more Indiana basketball than he does New York City basketball. He’s a Hoosier now.”

    Stephenson came to Barclays Center for Monday night’s game against the reeling Nets as the 22-5 Pacers’ leader in assists (5.1 per game) while averaging 13 points and 6.7 rebounds a game. Not bad for a 6-foot-5, 23-year-old guard who until last season was a bench warmer best known for flashing LeBron James the choke sign in the playoffs and taking a retaliatory forearm to the neck by a former Miami scrub named Dexter Pittman.

    A behavioral work in progress, Stephenson still arouses opponents — and his coach, Frank Vogel — with occasional look-at-me indulgences. Most recently, James seethed and promised the Pacers star Paul George that he would “remember that” after Stephenson dunked and preened in the final seconds of a victory over the Heat.

    “He does some irritating things,” said Donnie Walsh, who subbed for Larry Bird as the Pacers’ president last season and has remained with the organization since Bird’s return. “But other than that, in the last two years there’s nothing I’ve seen from this kid that doesn’t make me think he can be really good.”

    Strangely enough, it was Walsh, while running the Knicks, who helped Stephenson land in Indiana when he refused to take him in the 2010 draft — not once, but twice, with consecutive second-round selections. Do Andy Rautins (38th pick) and Landry Fields (39) ring a bell?

    Bird took a chance on Stephenson with the 40th pick, and while Walsh would have to say oops on that, such was Stephenson’s reputation as a tempestuous court presence after one lukewarm college season (at Cincinnati) and after all the Born Ready hoopla at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn.

    Coming behind Lincoln predecessors like Stephon Marbury and Sebastian Telfair — both of whom were disappointing pros for different reasons — Stephenson was also dealing with the growing notion that New York City players were only legends in their own minds.

    “One of the great obstacles of long-term success is the cancer of early success,” Konchalski said when Stephenson was 17, a warning to avoid standard Brooklyn bombast.

    In a recent telephone interview, Konchalski said: “In high school, Lance’s whole focus was on scoring, on breaking Telfair’s state record, which he did. Now he’s one of the best rebounding and passing wings in the league, he guards multiple positions and his own scoring is almost secondary. I have a lot of respect for him for the way he’s adjusted, for realizing that was how he was going to stay in the league, much less become a very good player.”

    Would that have happened with the Knicks, under the dropped ceiling and circus of Madison Square Garden? The answer might be the next question: When was the last time the Knicks nurtured a young player and reaped the benefits thereof?

    Brooklyn, where the Nets are collapsing under the weight of expectations, may not have been a much different professional environment and possibly even worse given all the home borough distractions.

    In Indianapolis, Stephenson has been joined by his parents and, Walsh said, is a protégé of the veteran, no-nonsense forward David West. When Stephenson makes a spectacle of himself, he will hear it from West, Vogel and even Bird, who was one of the great trash talkers but in a more clandestine way.

    Bird once believed that Stephenson might have the most natural talent of anyone he drafted, probably a reach now that George has ascended to the league’s elite. Still, Stephenson, George and Roy Hibbert give the Pacers a nucleus of players presumably still getting better, perhaps making the recently activated former All-Star Danny Granger expendable in a trade.

    “Everything he does is very efficient, instinctive,” Walsh said of Stephenson. “He can get past his man almost every time and he has a great knack for finding guys under the basket and out in the corners, which is what we do, spacing the floor.”

    Off the court, in the locker room, Stephenson accentuates the “we,” crediting Sunday’s triple-double to the flow of the game. “It was easy because I know my teammates are going to knock down shots,” he said.

    By next summer, entering free agency, Stephenson, who is now earning slightly less than $1 million, will no doubt become more of a self-promoter. Reluctant to pay revenue taxes, the Pacers will have to be creative to keep him. For his part, Stephenson may want to take a hard look at the state of the game in his home city and remember how much a stable workplace is worth to an emerging N.B.A. player, born ready or not.
    Take me out to the black, tell 'em I ain't coming back. Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me.

  • #2
    Re: NYT: Pacers’ Stephenson: Born in Brooklyn, Blooming in Indiana

    “He has totally reinvented himself,” said Tom Konchalski, the Queens-based scout and master of scholastic recruiting, who knows New York players better than most. “He plays more Indiana basketball than he does New York City basketball. He’s a Hoosier now.”
    This statement is profound. I would really like to see him expand on what this means.


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

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    • #3
      Re: NYT: Pacers’ Stephenson: Born in Brooklyn, Blooming in Indiana

      Originally posted by Peck View Post
      This statement is profound. I would really like to see him expand on what this means.
      In a recent telephone interview, Konchalski said: “In high school, Lance’s whole focus was on scoring, on breaking Telfair’s state record, which he did. Now he’s one of the best rebounding and passing wings in the league, he guards multiple positions and his own scoring is almost secondary. I have a lot of respect for him for the way he’s adjusted, for realizing that was how he was going to stay in the league, much less become a very good player.”

      from later in the article

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: NYT: Pacers’ Stephenson: Born in Brooklyn, Blooming in Indiana

        Originally posted by Peck View Post
        This statement is profound. I would really like to see him expand on what this means.
        I think I know what he thinks it means, but I don't believe it's true at all. Lance is doing things now that he showed us in his first summer league game. He's developed tremendously as a player, but all of those flashes, the "Hoosier" basketball, were there in the very beginning.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: NYT: Pacers’ Stephenson: Born in Brooklyn, Blooming in Indiana

          Originally posted by Peck View Post
          This statement is profound. I would really like to see him expand on what this means.
          It means Tom Konchalski likes to use buzzwords. It doesn't mean anything, Lance plays the same way he always has, he's just better now.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: NYT: Pacers’ Stephenson: Born in Brooklyn, Blooming in Indiana

            Originally posted by Peck View Post
            This statement is profound. I would really like to see him expand on what this means.
            It means he thinks Indiana basketball is superior to New York basketball.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: NYT: Pacers’ Stephenson: Born in Brooklyn, Blooming in Indiana

              Already I can tell Lance is still beat.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: NYT: Pacers’ Stephenson: Born in Brooklyn, Blooming in Indiana

                Lance is averaging 16ppg, 8 rebounds and 6 assists the prior 6 games. He's got 19 points tonight so far with more time left. I think the kid is taking it to yet another level.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: NYT: Pacers’ Stephenson: Born in Brooklyn, Blooming in Indiana

                  All Star baby!!!!
                  @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: NYT: Pacers’ Stephenson: Born in Brooklyn, Blooming in Indiana

                    Originally posted by vnzla81 View Post
                    All Star baby!!!!
                    See my avatar.

                    Comment

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