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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"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

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"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.

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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

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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).

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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.

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Rule #10

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Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

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  • #31
    Re: Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

    I am struggling with the natural desire to be 'happy' that we have made moves at all... but then skeptical as to whether the moves are the types of moves that get us going in the right direction. We still seem to be a true 'star' away from being legit. That star either needs to grow from within or somehow we need to find a way to get one.... and since that rarely happens in free agency, that means a trade. Also, we need to remember that David West is an expiring contract, so there is a question of what this team looks like in 2 years. I think the Dallas trade was meant to address that as well - to try to get some players in the similar salary length and age category to grow together.

    Comment


    • #32
      Re: Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

      Originally posted by TheDon View Post
      I could be taking this the wrong way but the one part in that entire article that stuck out to me that made me cringe a little bit



      now if they meant that as the next step in progression on the way to the finals then that's all well and good but shouldn't that be "a team trying to reach the NBA Finals...
      I think that he meant the former...not the latter. It's been a step by step process.....make the Playoffs 2 years ago....make it too the 2nd round last season....the next step is to make it to the ECF.
      Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

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      • #33
        Re: Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

        Originally posted by Bball View Post
        I get so tired of reading how this is basketball Siberia and that's why no big name FA's ever come here when there's ample evidence we don't pursue them anyway. Walsh's entire time here was using the MO that we'd not pursue high $$ FA's. And with some of the things we've learned about Simon, and add in Bird's odd departure and comments, I think the circumstantial evidence is fairly solid.
        Define "pursue." We had both Kaman and Gordon in to Indiana. I'm not sorry we didn't offer crazy money to either one.
        This space for rent.

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        • #34
          Re: Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

          Fans that aren't happy now will be the same ones lining up to buy a Gerald Green jersey when he wins the dunk contest again and the Pacers are leading the central.
          Senior at the University of Louisville.
          Greenfield ---> The Ville

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          • #35
            Re: Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

            Originally posted by troyc11a View Post
            We are going to bid.
            You sure?
            This space for rent.

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            • #36
              Re: Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

              Originally posted by TheDon View Post
              I could be taking this the wrong way but the one part in that entire article that stuck out to me that made me cringe a little bit



              now if they meant that as the next step in progression on the way to the finals then that's all well and good but shouldn't that be "a team trying to reach the NBA Finals...
              I don't think Zig Ziglar would like your goal either.
              "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

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              • #37
                Re: Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

                I will never understand why some people feel like we downgraded?
                DJ>>Collison.. Even if we kept Collison he was going to command GH type money.
                You can't tie 80+ Mil on players who bring the same type game to the team. Dj is a
                much better disher and a much better 3 point shooter.. Gerald Green>>Dhante.
                Might not be the leader Jones was, but certainly brings such a great game to the table.
                Iam brings a much better defensive game to the table then Lou.. He's much more taller and
                pretty damm athletic and for 4 mil! a year why not take the gamble. The market for
                big men is a damm expensive rate. Kwame just got singed! Kwame Brown.

                Our Bench will look like this..

                DJ-Lance-Green-Hans/Plum-Iam..


                http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HnwRfbJXiM

                raw baby.. Raw.

                That is damm good. People complain about our bigs, we don't need scoring with Dj-Lance-Green. Dude's could light it up..
                We all know Lance can play. It was just a matter of time. We all know that Lance is by far our best passer(pre-DJ).
                I really like how Plumlee is coming along. Super raw guy.. We are small market, we live off trades and growing our own players..
                That's how you compete with the big markets. Just look at the Rays... Last season we where all blessed with an exciting brand of basketball.
                I really really really enjoyed our games last year. So many years of failure.. Now just because we where legit last year, many have
                out of this world expectations. I really feel about our core staying together and competing. Hopefully Paul and Hibbert take that next step.
                Last edited by picasso; 07-13-2012, 03:16 PM.

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                • #38
                  Re: Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

                  Originally posted by GrangerRanger View Post
                  I've said it before and I'll say it again. The problem with our bench isn't that we don't have a go to scorer, or someone who can create their own shot. It's the fact we don't have a front court player that can score consistently.
                  In order to improve the bench, I thoroughly believe we need a guy down low that can score the ball.
                  I'd like to see some fiddling with the lineup that puts West in the second unit, or at least enough fiddling that we don't have the same problem of no low post scorer in the second unit.

                  I think it's possible that West would be okay with it as long as he is finishing.

                  If Ian is going to be our X-man, then he needs to play alongside Hibbert and West both. Plums can provide a few minutes a game as well, but shouldn't be in at the same time with Ian.
                  "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

                  Comment


                  • #39
                    Re: Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

                    Originally posted by McKeyFan View Post
                    I don't think Zig Ziglar would like your goal either.
                    lol that refernce is completely lost on me bud

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                    • #40
                      Re: Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

                      So many are upset cause of the DC, Jones for Mahimni trade that was supposedly not needed to obtain Ian. Wonder how all these other teams fans feel where their teams are allowing high quality guys to just walk away with getting no return. Like a Mayo, Lee or Lou Williams. There are a load of these players where the teams are getting zero return. I realize it's a little different cause they are RFA's (now FA's) but couldn't they had dealt these players at the deadline for some kind of value or get something in a S&T. What about all the players that have team options and the teams are opting out and letting them walk. My point is, at least the Pacers got a return for DC. The return is a legit backup big and dumping Jones and Collison's contracts. Which, got us Augustin and Green. What if DC had an team option and the Pacers opted out and just let him walk and we was stuck with Jones. Teams letting their players walk is a sign that the owners are trying to dictate the market. Trying to get players on more of a FA market without giving up assets for non-star performers. So, I am very happy of the results our FO has done this off season thus far. I would like to see us get a 1 yr. 6mil contract before Hibbert and Hill are signed.
                      Garbage players get 1st round picks, (WTF)! All of the NBA must hate the Pacers! LOL

                      Comment


                      • #41
                        Re: Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

                        Like I said I kind of like what we did, I'm just not sure if this team is going to be better, I can't stop thinking of the Green signing and think "Kareem Rush" I understand the people are excited about his potential(I was few years ago) but at this point in his career I don't expect much from him, I like that we replaced DC with Augustin but I don't know how much better he is going to make the second unit and Mahinmi I think he is going to be decent but again he is not a difference maker, he is just a decent big that we can play 10-15 minutes a game.

                        At the end of the day we only addressed one weakness(backup point guard that can create) but we ended up leaving 3 open(big man that can rebound and defend/SF that can play D/shoot creator off the bench) and opened another one(SG/SF defense).
                        @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

                        Comment


                        • #42
                          Re: Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

                          Originally posted by Pacer Fan View Post
                          And exactly what should they be doing? Do you know a team out there that can give better value for our assets? How do you know that the FO didn't check every possible deal for their assets? please explain, I would like to be enlightened.
                          Enlighten you? You've got to be joking. Pacers just gave away DC for nothing. Nothing. And then signed another undersized pg for more money. Ian was an UFA, so we all know the Pacers could have just signed him. Get something for DC than just a straight salary dump. I don't mind giving DJ away, I doubt he has much value, but I know DC has some value. There are teams that could use a good backup/starting point guard. I mean, at least get a future pick, even if it's just a 2nd rounder. Houston, what, got the 18th pick for Budinger. Give me a break.

                          Oh brother, and then you throw the "you don't know if they looked for a deal". Of course I don't. I never claimed I did. I don't know any more than you. But c'mon, giving DC away just seems so idiotic.
                          First time in a long time, I've been happy with the team that was constructed, and now they struggle. I blame the coach.

                          Comment


                          • #43
                            Re: Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

                            Originally posted by vnzla81 View Post
                            At the end of the day we only addressed one weakness(backup point guard that can create) but we ended up leaving 3 open(big man that can rebound and defend/SF that can play D/shoot creator off the bench) and opened another one(SG/SF defense).
                            At the end of the day FO addressed:

                            Hibbert > Resigned = win
                            Hill > Resigned = win
                            Amundson > Mahimni = win
                            Jones > Green = win
                            Collison > Augustin = win

                            3 for 3 in the FA Market and was able to retain our 2 RFA's = 5 for 5...I'd call this a very successful week.
                            Garbage players get 1st round picks, (WTF)! All of the NBA must hate the Pacers! LOL

                            Comment


                            • #44
                              Gee, how did I know THIS was coming? Pritchard made some good moves but ultimately Donnie screwed up.

                              You can't get to the NBA Finals unless you get to the Conference Finals. Prepping to beat a team in the ECF does you no good of you end up 10th in the East.

                              When will people realize that you can't just prep for the goal 3 steps ahead without making sure you climb those three steps?

                              So many people think we only got where we did through luck - I think we did a damn good job of making sure we could AT LEAST get there again WITHOUT luck as a factor. How the Hell is that NOT improvement?



                              -- Sent from my Palm Pre using Forums
                              BillS

                              A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
                              Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...

                              Comment


                              • #45
                                Re: Pacers Insider: Fans aren't happy, but Kevin Pritchard, Donnie Walsh are upgrading the roster

                                If our bench has gone from Collison, Barbosa, Jones, Hansbrough, and Amundson to Augustin, Green, George, Hansbrough, and Mahinmi... I have to say I think we'll be noticeably better. So much bigger and much more athletic. We'll have a rim protector all 48 minutes, not just when Roy is playing.

                                I'm not giddy, but I'm encouraged by this roster. Especially if Paul George makes a noticeable improvement.

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