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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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#DetroitInvasion

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  • #16
    Re: #DetroitInvasion

    Originally posted by Will Galen View Post

    You ruined some peoples evening and think it's fun and want to do it again?

    Look for Hill and George and Hibbert to quit having fan sections if you can't represent them with class!
    Here, here.

    I'll be damned if anyone else is having any fun around here on Will Galen's watch.

    Comment


    • #17
      Re: #DetroitInvasion

      No more sports!


      Comment


      • #18
        Re: #DetroitInvasion

        Originally posted by Mackey_Rose View Post
        Here, here.

        I'll be damned if anyone else is having any fun around here on Will Galen's watch.
        I believe Will is thinking cheer but don't be rude. I know I usually have a little less tolerance when we're invaded by Bulls fans in BLF. And frankly when Squad 6 came to town the first time I wasn't real happy but sucked up my pride because they were not hateful. Still didn't like it because when your team is already beat down you don't look at outsiders as a positive thing.
        You know how hippos are made out to be sweet and silly, like big cows, but are actually extremely dangerous and can kill you with stunning brutality? The Pacers are the NBA's hippos....Matt Moore CBS Sports....

        Comment


        • #19
          Re: #DetroitInvasion

          Yeah, I mean does the distinction seriously need to be explained to anyone regarding having fun in general vs having fun specifically while ruining something for others? How old are we?

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: #DetroitInvasion

            I don't see anything that suggests they were rude though for the distinction to even need to be made.


            Comment


            • #21
              Re: #DetroitInvasion

              Originally posted by Trader Joe View Post
              I don't see anything that suggests they were rude though for the distinction to even need to be made.
              It was vague earlier (open for interpretation, at least), but later clarified. Then Mackey seemed to deliberately misinterpret the spirit of the message Will appeared to be communicating.

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: #DetroitInvasion

                Except we WEREN'T hateful, we didn't boo Hooper per say (although if I were a lawyer working for the Colts, I would be looking into a copyright infringment lawsuit with that logo), we just cheered a little bit louder for Boomer and booed when he got gang-tackled.

                Heck, the few times we caught freebies that were thrown into the crowd, they were immediately surrendered to Piston fan kids. We had Pacero and Fireman Ken taking pictures with the kids. If anything, we HELPED those poor suffering Pistons fans have fun!

                For goodness sakes, even the security guard who Seth mentioned walking through our section was having a good time, he started taking pictures with us, then went over to the fans who had started the Detroit basketball chants up there and (after explaining to them that we were not being disrespectful to Detroit, no sucks chants, whatever) led them in chanting "WE GOT BANNERS" at us.
                Last edited by Sandman21; 02-25-2013, 01:48 PM.
                "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


                • #23
                  Re: #DetroitInvasion

                  I think part of the worry guys is the mention of plenty of adult beverages being tested. Lets just say most folks who have a good heart when tanked up just have an enhanced good heart. Those who are borderline obnoxious usually go full tilt with Bush or Sam Adams family assistance.
                  You know how hippos are made out to be sweet and silly, like big cows, but are actually extremely dangerous and can kill you with stunning brutality? The Pacers are the NBA's hippos....Matt Moore CBS Sports....

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Re: #DetroitInvasion

                    Originally posted by MAStamper View Post
                    It was vague earlier (open for interpretation, at least), but later clarified. Then Mackey seemed to deliberately misinterpret the spirit of the message Will appeared to be communicating.
                    Haha and you don't think that he took what was clearly a joking tone regarding "ruining" the Pistons' fan experience, to a level that "deliberately misinterpreted the spirit of the message IndyHoya was communicating?"

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: #DetroitInvasion

                      Originally posted by Mackey_Rose View Post
                      Haha and you don't think that he took what was clearly a joking tone regarding "ruining" the Pistons' fan experience, to a level that "deliberately misinterpreted the spirit of the message IndyHoya was communicating?"
                      Going just on what I saw Will quoting, I don't know that I would say that. Now that I'm paying attention and seeing it was from Hoya's earlier post, I can see that argument. Knowing Will the way I think I do, I don't think he would deliberately misinterpret it, but he might accidentally do that.

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Re: #DetroitInvasion

                        Some quick thoughts:
                        1) I believe it was the actual Boomer that came to the Palace. Me and the wifey sat down in the lower level for parts of the first half and when Boomer approached the tunnel to exit with his cronies, he recognized us, came over, hugged the wifey and high-fived us as well as some other Pacers fans in the area. And he did approach the team and gave high fives to several players as well.
                        2) I thought the group behaved fairly well and for the most part, security was cool, especially the security folks I met while in the lower level, who went out of their way to be helpful. When I moved to the upper level with the group, there were a few chants that weren't my cup of tea (I don't like to shout anything derogatory about players or the opposing teams, so I abstained a couple times) but really, I don't think anything was too over-the-top, and the home-town fans were definitely not setting the bar high at all.
                        3) I recorded the FSN broadcast and can cofirm that the Area55/G2 Zone made several appearances in the broadcast. IndyHoya (Joe M.) even got a shout out from Chris (via Brooke) as the person "that masterminded the trip idea about a month ago." Or something like that. So Joe, you are on the FSN radar! The G2 Zoners (e.g., ever the red-haired stepchildren in the closet!!!) did not get any such love for planning the Detroit Invasion, however, although PD logs will reveal that the G2 Zoners had been thinking about a road trip to either Memphis, Detroit or Chicago for some time. In fact, several of us are already planning a Memphis Invasion for next season, if the schedule remains true to form and we end up playing the Grizzlies in an early MLK Day game. So folks.....mark your calendars for barbeque, Graceland and Pacers basketball! Great idea, Joe, to include PDer's in the loop for the next road trip. Maybe we get 100 folks going next time.
                        4) Not surprising about not being acknowledged by the buses. Probably had as much to do with the drivers and security folks as anything, but interestingly, we had our lower level seats right next to the visitors tunnel literally within high-five distance of the players, and most of the time when the team entered and left the arena, the players had tunnel vision and most did not acknowledge the fans. Although in all fairness, some folks sitting low did say they got some high fives at the end of the game and a couple of folks were successful in getting autographs prior to the game after the shootaround, including from David West.
                        5) The Palace showed it's age but is still impressive from the outside and in the concourses. Many concessions were good and reasonably priced. So glad they didn't put the arena in downtown Detroit. Probably would not have gone there otherwise, as most of us probably would have been risking our lives just to make it to and from our cars.
                        Last edited by joeyd; 02-25-2013, 02:03 PM.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: #DetroitInvasion

                          Originally posted by Sandman21 View Post
                          Except we WEREN'T hateful, we didn't boo Hooper per say (although if I were a lawyer working for the Colts, I would be looking into a copyright infringment lawsuit with that logo), we just cheered a little bit louder for Boomer and booed when he got gang-tackled.

                          Heck, the few times we caught freebies that were thrown into the crowd, they were immediately surrendered to Piston fan kids. We had Pacero and Fireman Ken taking pictures with the kids. If anything, we HELPED those poor suffering Pistons fans have fun!
                          That sounds great! Way better than what you posted before.

                          As for me over reacting, you yourself said I quote, "We were monsters and didn't even care," and that appeared to be in response to it being said peoples evenings were ruined. I can only go by what you write.

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Re: #DetroitInvasion

                            Originally posted by Will Galen View Post

                            You ruined some peoples evening and think it's fun and want to do it again?

                            Look for Hill and George and Hibbert to quit having fan sections if you can't represent them with class!
                            I believe the actual root cause for the home fans' unpleasant experience was the hometown product on the floor.

                            G2/A55......keep up the good work!

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Re: #DetroitInvasion

                              Originally posted by joeyd View Post
                              4) Not surprising about not being acknowledged by the buses. Probably had as much to do with the drivers and security folks as anything, but interestingly, we had our lower level seats right next to the visitors tunnel literally within high-five distance of the players, and most of the time when the team entered and left the arena, the players had tunnel vision and most did not acknowledge the fans. Although in all fairness, some folks sitting low did say they got some high fives at the end of the game and a couple of folks were successful in getting autographs prior to the game after the shootaround, including from David West.
                              Just because we couldn't see them acknowledging doesn't mean they didn't.....


                              "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


                              • #30
                                Re: #DetroitInvasion

                                Originally posted by MAStamper View Post
                                Going just on what I saw Will quoting, I don't know that I would say that. Now that I'm paying attention and seeing it was from Hoya's earlier post, I can see that argument. Knowing Will the way I think I do, I don't think he would deliberately misinterpret it, but he might accidentally do that.
                                I never try to start trouble, but I do try to warn people if I see trouble brewing. It sounded like trouble to me if evenings were ruined. If their evenings were ruined by the scoreboard, well (giggle) that's different.

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