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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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What is the problem & What is your fix?

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  • What is the problem & What is your fix?

    Fair warning: Knee-jerk post. I'm frustrated and trying to let it out without my posts being littered with asterisks.

    Simple questions: What do you think the problem areas are for this team, and what do you suggest we do to fix them? By "fixing" them I don't mean, "player X has been playing like crap, so let's trade him". That may be an answer to some of them, but let's try to be as realistic as possible.

    Problems lately, from my perspective (and in no particular order):

    1) Paul George is shooting terribly. His defense is still good, but his shots are simply not falling and it's hurting us.
    2) Turnovers. The main culprits here are Lance and PG.
    3) The bench. I'll break that down since it's pretty broad. CJ Watson has been awful lately. Luis Scola has been awful lately. Granger had a decent shooting night tonight, but by and large, his shooting has been abysmal this season. Mahinmi is a complete non-factor on offense.
    4) A sense of entitlement. We have lost that "us against the world, blue collar gold swagger" mentality. We go into games thinking that just by showing up, we are going to win. Wrong.
    5) Roy has become almost a non-factor on offense.

    Fixes:

    1) Really not much we can do to fix it. Paul will shoot himself out of it and will be better for it. But he has to improve his shot selection and he really needs to stop whining to the refs so much. It's having the reverse effect.
    2) For his part, Lance needs to cool it with this flashy, behind the back ****. The laser passes thrown at the heads of other players aren't good either. He needs to play under control. His talent is undeniable, but it doesn't mean a damn thing if he can't corral it. We need Bird to sit him down. PG needs to focus on ball handling and make better passes.
    3) Well, I understand Bird wanting to add a scorer. I don't know what is wrong with CJ or how to fix it besides letting him play through it. With Luis, I think we need to add some wrinkles to the second unit offense. Namely, don't resort him to a pick and pop shooter. Put him closer to the basket. Let him post guys up. Getting the ball that far out is fine if he's making his shots, but if he puts the ball on the deck he's liable to turn it over. I think Granger needs more time. We know the fix for Ian Mahinmi; we are just waiting for it to be ready.
    4) This one is on the coaching staff, Bird, and the veteran leaders (West & Hill). Really, it's on the whole team, but we need those guys to light a fire.
    5) He needs more touches. He can't get into much of a rhythm because he just isn't getting the ball in positions to score very much.


    Anyway, long post, mostly just me blowing off steam. Feel free to contribute. And by no means is this a panicky, "this team doesn't have what it takes to win it all" type of posts. I still think this team will be fine and is absolutely a contender, but we are going through a rough patch and need to sort it out. Look forward to hearing what the rest of you have to say.

  • #2
    Re: What is the problem & What is your fix?

    Sub PG out at the first deadball in the AS game, and dont put him in the rest of the night...
    Abba Zaba, your my only friend.

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    • #3
      Re: What is the problem & What is your fix?

      I agree with your top 5.... mostly. On #1, I'd change "shooting horribly" to "shooting horribly... and too often." He doesn't need big numbers for us to win, he just needs to hit a good percentage.

      #6. Since hitting his career high last month, Lance has been infatuated with scoring, often to the detriment of the passing that defined his early success. We've got plenty of guys who can score... pass the ball!
      This space for rent.

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      • #4
        Re: What is the problem & What is your fix?

        PG and the bench have been the big problems. I don't know whether it is knocking up the stripper, but PG doesn't look right in the head.

        The bench started off the year great, but all got cold at once. I am not sure why Copeland, Sloan or others don't get some burn when Scola struggles game after game. I know Bynum isn't a savior, but damn, as bad as Ian is we need him ASAP.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: What is the problem & What is your fix?

          FWIW, Scola seems to agree:





          Comment


          • #6
            Re: What is the problem & What is your fix?

            The most obvious thing to me is that we need to play more players. Frank has a short rotation and when things aren't working there isn't much he can change up. Right now all Frank can do is say "Try harder!".

            He needs to get Butler in the game for 5 minutes in the first half. If he's hitting and Paul George isn't then play Butler more. That's were I'd start. Then blend in Copeland.

            Most teams shorten their rotation for the playoffs. We're not going to be able to do that because Frank is trying to play a short rotation the entire season. I hope he doesn't learn the hard way that you can't do that.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: What is the problem & What is your fix?

              Problem: Team needs a mental and physical break

              fix: allstar break

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: What is the problem & What is your fix?

                My biggest issue is the sense of entitlement. All of a sudden we went from the hard working, physical/scrappy team to the type of whiney/complaining flashy team that we were built to compete against.

                The rest I feel will fall into place. But that sense of entitlement is going to be our biggest detriment because we are not talented enough to play that card. We NEED to be that tough, scrappy physical team that plays together. That's how we will get to where we want to be.

                But that random behind the back flashy bs needs to stop already.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: What is the problem & What is your fix?

                  Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
                  Problem: Team and fans need a mental and physical break

                  fix: allstar break
                  Fixed.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: What is the problem & What is your fix?

                    This Dallas game was just a joke.... Almost purposeful non-ball movement. They just turned it off. I agree though, they'll be recharged after the break...
                    What you own is your own kingdom
                    What you do is your own glory
                    What you love is your own power
                    What you live is your own story

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: What is the problem & What is your fix?

                      No problems as far as I can see. 12 losses at the All Star break and all but 4 of them (@Chi, @Atl, @Phx, @OKC) were close games in the fourth quarter. Not many teams in league history have dominated an entire season. As long as we start gearing it up as the playoffs approach then I'm not worried at all.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: What is the problem & What is your fix?

                        Would running more plays make a difference on the offensive end?

                        It seems that we fall into the habit of getting into a situation where we dribble dribble dribble, move the ball around without any real purpose and then end up with less than 8 seconds left on the shot clock where the Player is left to create something out of nothing.

                        Does this sound familiar?

                        Cuz this appears to happen all too often.
                        Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: What is the problem & What is your fix?

                          Problem: Missing too many shots

                          Fix: Inbound the ball to Bynum

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: What is the problem & What is your fix?

                            I don't understand why we haven't tried to use Copeland with Scola in a slump. Mix it up Frank, or we will be the 3rd seed before you know it!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: What is the problem & What is your fix?

                              I agree that the whining to the refs is getting out of hand. It's pretty sickening. It seems like PG is talking to the refs after every single possession. Some times to the point where he doesn't get back on defense or go for the offensive board. He needs to cut it out. It's doing nothing but hurting our team. And i agree he needs to take better shots. At the start of the year it seems like he was getting a lot more quality looks than he is now. Idk if he is trying to shoot too many threes or what, but he needs to work on getting to the hole and also get back to his mid range game.

                              The turnovers need to stop. I really wish Lance would stop trying to be so flashy. I know that's part of his game, but it's hurting the team. It seems like he's really focusing on his stats way too much. We need the lance that cares more about creating for others more than how many points and assists he's going to finish with. He needs to play in the flow of the game.

                              I really think we need to feed the bigs a lot more as well. David West has been killing it lately. When he's playing that, I think he definitely needs to be our number one option. We need to run more plays for Roy as well. I would like to see him get at least 10 shots a game. Most games he is playing efficient, but just not getting the touches he needs. George Hill needs to work on his entry pass.

                              As for the bench I have no idea what's up. I think Danny is starting to come around and will continue to improve. As for Watson and Scola I think their just in a big slump and there's nothing we can do except hope they bounce out of it. We need them clicking by the time the playoffs are here. Hopefully Andrew Bynum can provide some spark to our bench offense. We desperately need it. I'd like to see a Lance play more with the second unit as well. And I am not opposed to giving Rasual some minutes here and there either, he has played really good this year in limited time.

                              I think this team will really benefit from the all star break and I think we will come out on fire to Start the second half of the year.

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