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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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Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

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  • #31
    Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

    Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
    I follow the Colts at a distance. I watch parts of games, and end of games if it is close.

    I know the old saying you are what your record says you are. But the Colts just don't seem nearly as good as the top teams and they don't seem like an 11-5 team to me.

    Seem to have excellent coaching, great attitude - never quit, and they have Andrew Luck. But they need some significant upgrades in a lot of areas.
    I'd say we were an 11-5 caliber team before we lost Reggie, Ballard, Allen, Bradshaw, and Thomas

    Comment


    • #32
      Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

      Originally posted by Since86 View Post
      Sounds like Bethea and DBrown have said their farewells to the Indy lockerroom. Pretty much guarantees a Ballard/Richardson backfield.
      Where was that said?

      Comment


      • #33
        Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

        Originally posted by Since86 View Post
        Stephen Holder also says the Colts have about $30M in cap space.
        Our exact number in cap space is about 38 million, and that number goes up to 41 million if we cut Satele, which seems very likely. So we should have about 40+ million to spend

        Comment


        • #34
          Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

          Originally posted by BlueCollarColts View Post
          Where was that said?
          Twitter. One of the local writers said that Beathea addressed the lockerroom. I wanna say Conrad Brunner was the one, but I'm not sure.

          EDIT: Yeah, it was Brunner.

          Originally posted by @1070Bruno
          1st impression from #Colts lockerroom; Bethea, DBrown won't be back. Both sounded resigned. Bethea gave what amounted to farewell speech
          Originally posted by 1070@Bruno
          Other #Colts free agents all said what you'd expect: "I love Indy, I love the team, I want to be back." That included VDavis.
          Last edited by Since86; 01-13-2014, 05:51 PM.
          Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

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          • #35
            Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

            We definitely need to make changes on Defense..the only players I think don't need upgraded are Mathis, Davis, Freeman, Redding, and maybe Chapman. Everyone else is definitely replaceable, especially the secondary. Toler was decent at the start of the year, but he obviously can't stay healthy. Bethea and Landry just don't fit together. Their both terrible in coverage. So definitely one of them needs replaced. If we can get a good coverage safety then I'd rather keep Landry because he can definitely tackle and is decent against the run. Walden and RJF are decent players, but definitely not every down kind of players. I think Werner has potential and Sheppard as well to a lesser extent. But we definitely need to try hard to improve the D in the draft and free agency. I would probably give Manusky another chance with a better squad before letting him go.

            As for the offense I think we definitely are almost set. I like our young weapons in Hilton, Fleener, Whalen, and Brazil. We definitely need to get all the injured guys healthy. I dunno about Rogers, he seems to not have very good hands to me, but he definitely has all the physical tools. I'm assuming we lose Brown and Bradshaw. I think a Ballard/Richardson back field will be good enough as I definitely expect Trent to improve. I refuse to believe that he just isn't capable of being an NFL back. From what I seen at Alabama and with the Cleveland I think he can definitely improve and be a quality NFL back. This will definitely be one of the areas I'm curious to see develop. We obviously need to improve the O line. I think Cherilus, Costanzo and Thomas have potential to be starters. Everyone else needs replaced except maybe Thornton as he is only a rookie. So we definitely need a new Center if Holmes isn't good and a guard. As for Pep, I dunno...I don't want to replace another OC this year and make our young guys adjust to ANOTHER new offense....but I did not like what I seen from him this year. Actually I hate his play calling mostly. He's too stubborn and conservative for my liking. And he doesn't play to our strengths. Idk though. OH, and I'll be totally pissed if we don't resign McAfee...he's a great punter and definitely an asset to our community.

            I'm not sure about Pagano either...I definitely wanna give him another year or two, but I definitely have worries about us ever making it to a SB with him as our coach.

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            • #36
              Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

              Originally posted by Since86 View Post
              Twitter. One of the local writers said that Beathea addressed the lockerroom. I wanna say Conrad Brunner was the one, but I'm not sure.

              EDIT: Yeah, it was Brunner.
              hmm interesting, can't say i'm surprised though. I hope Bethea and Brown do well, and i'm glad we were able to get Bethea a ring in his time here. Now, who will replace him?

              Comment


              • #37
                Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

                Should we let Delano Howell replace Bethea?

                Comment


                • #38
                  Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

                  Sign Stevie Brown for cheap from the Giants. He missed all of last year with an injury, but he was great in 2012 and he went to Columbus East. He could come pretty cheap due to his injury. It would be worth the risk.

                  Comment


                  • #39
                    Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

                    Kerry Rhodes is still available somehow. I don't think he officially retired. He would be good for a one year contract.

                    Comment


                    • #40
                      Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

                      I am going with the offensive line first.

                      Resign Mike McGlynn and play him at Center. He will probably cost 3 million. Then sign Texans Guard Wade Smith (4 million) and play him at left guard and have Donald Thomas play RG.

                      Draft a backup tackle in the later rounds.

                      Defensive ILB.

                      I like Spikes alot to fix the defensive line problem and add a run stoper to the LBer core. Backup plan would be be to sign Paul Soliai at NT and let his 6'4 355 frame eat up the double blockers.

                      DB's. You have Toler for 4.5 mill for the next 2 years. Find out if he is worth it next year.
                      Resign Davis.

                      Safeties.
                      If you go after Byrd then you will probably have the highest paid safety combo in the NFL. Landry got 8 million and Byrd will get around 10-11 million per year. Needless to say thats a ton of money and I doubt they go that route so I think they go after Kendrick Lewis from the Chiefs. Must say I think they should draft a guy regardless.

                      Totally forgot about Howell thanks BCC. Thats also a viable option.
                      Last edited by Gamble1; 01-13-2014, 07:40 PM.

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                      • #41
                        Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

                        Originally posted by Gamble1 View Post
                        I am going with the offensive line first.

                        Resign Mike McGlynn and play him at Center. He will probably cost 3 million. Then sign Texans Guard Wade Smith (4 million) and play him at left guard and have Donald Thomas play RG.

                        Draft a backup tackle in the later rounds.

                        Defensive ILB.

                        I like Spikes alot to fix the defensive line problem and add a run stoper to the LBer core. Backup plan would be be to sign Paul Soliai at NT and let his 6'4 355 frame eat up the double blockers.

                        DB's. You have Toler for 4.5 mill for the next 2 years. Find out if he is worth it next year.
                        Resign Davis.

                        Safeties.
                        If you go after Byrd then you will probably have the highest paid safety combo in the NFL. Landry got 8 million and Byrd will get around 10-11 million per year. Needless to say thats a ton of money and I doubt they go that route so I think they go after Kendrick Lewis from the Chiefs. Must say I think they should draft a guy regardless.

                        Totally forgot about Howell thanks BCC. Thats also a viable option.
                        NO! We need a bigger upgrade than McGlynn at center, he is average at best, and was still sadly a huge improvement over Satele

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                        • #42
                          Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

                          Originally posted by BlueCollarColts View Post
                          NO! We need a bigger upgrade than McGlynn at center, he is average at best, and was still sadly a huge improvement over Satele
                          You are going to have to make tough choices on the cap because 35 mill will only go so far. I would be happy to upgrade the Center position but guys like Mack are going to cost a lot. He even said he will allow the Browns to match any offer so pulling him away will be very difficult.

                          My biggest issue with McGlynn was his pass protection against stunts not his run blocking and at the Center position he will not have much difficulty IMO. If you want a different name with a low cost it would be Brain De La Puente of the Saints. They will have to use a ton of money to resign Jimmy Graham and their OT so he is a cheaper option. The Packers and the Browns sound like they are serious about resigning their centers and those are the two best options.
                          Last edited by Gamble1; 01-13-2014, 09:38 PM.

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                          • #43
                            Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

                            First priority is interior offensive line. Really, really need to figure out the G/C/G part. We can't be a "run first" team without that.

                            Interior D line needs improvement as well. Not sure if we have the right players there, or if these can improve.

                            The receivers biggest problem after Reggie went down was the inability to get separation in man coverage. They worked that out somewhat, but I still think we need one receiver that can get open consistently on a simple route against man coverage.

                            I'd like to see some improvement at LB. Not sure if that will happen, though.

                            Did I mention the interior o line? :-)
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                            • #44
                              Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

                              Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
                              But the Colts just don't seem nearly as good as the top teams and they don't seem like an 11-5 team to me.
                              Of the 4 remaining playoff teams, the Colts beats 3 of them during the regular season.

                              Compare the Colts to the Chiefs, another 11-5 team. The Chiefs got a lot of respect this year. The Colts only had 1 pro bowler compared to the Chiefs 8 pro bowlers. But look at the Chiefs record, they didn't beat anyone good all year. I think the Colts are better than they get credit for.

                              Comment


                              • #45
                                Re: Indianapolis Colts off-season thread

                                Originally posted by Gamble1 View Post
                                You are going to have to make tough choices on the cap because 35 mill will only go so far. I would be happy to upgrade the Center position but guys like Mack are going to cost a lot. He even said he will allow the Browns to match any offer so pulling him away will be very difficult.

                                My biggest issue with McGlynn was his pass protection against stunts not his run blocking and at the Center position he will not have much difficulty IMO. If you want a different name with a low cost it would be Brain De La Puente of the Saints. They will have to use a ton of money to resign Jimmy Graham and their OT so he is a cheaper option. The Packers and the Browns sound like they are serious about resigning their centers and those are the two best options.
                                we are gonna cut Satele, so we will likely have about 41 million in cap

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