Announcement

Collapse

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.
See more
See less

Chavez in Harlem!!!!!!!!!!!!

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Chavez in Harlem!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Just heard on CNN. Having a big speech, getting a big cheer from the crowd. He wants to provide cheap oil to the low income folks in Harlem.

  • #2
    Re: Chavez in Harlem!!!!!!!!!!!!

    And he called Bush the devil.

    I was out driving around and they played a clip of him and I figured he was running for democrat senator from some liberal state. (Although I did wonder why he had a female voice)

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Chavez in Harlem!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Considering what our government has done to him in the past this is small potatos.
      Allegations of U.S. involvement

      Chávez has repeatedly stated that he believes that the Bush Administration and the CIA orchestrated the coup. A US airplane was seen landing at the prison where Chavez was held captive. In September 2003, he refused to travel to the United States to address the United Nations, saying that he had received intelligence information that the United States government had prepared an assassination attempt against him. The Guardian published a statement by Wayne Madsen alleging U.S. Navy involvement.[5] It was later alleged that Bush administration officials Elliott Abrams, whom Chávez had accused of supervising the planning of the operation, and Otto Reich, ex-US ambassador to Venezuela, were aware that something was about to take place. [6][7] It is not surprising that U.S. officials knew of the level of unrest that existed in Venezuela, considering the days of massive public protests against Chávez leading up to the events of April 11; however, an investigation conducted by the U.S. Inspector General, at the request of U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd, D-CT, stated that "U.S. officials acted appropriately and did nothing to encourage an April coup against Venezuela's president".[8][9]

      According to a report in the New York Times, Reich warned Congressional aides that there was more at stake in Venezuela than the success or failure of Chávez. He accused Chávez of meddling with the historically government-owned state oil company, providing a haven for Colombian guerrillas, and bailing out Cuba with preferential rates on oil. He also said that the administration had received reports that "foreign paramilitary forces" - whom they suspected of being Cubans - were involved in the bloody suppression of anti-Chávez demonstrators (none of this has ever been proven).[10] The United States did not condemn the coup until it became clear that Chávez would be reinstated.[11]
      [edit]

      Criminal penalties for coup participants

      Under the 1999 Constitution, military officers are entitled to a pre-trial hearing before the Plenary of the Supreme Court of Justice to rule on whether they should be charged with a crime. In such a hearing on August 14, 2002, the Tribunal ruled by an 11-9 margin (with two justices recused) that four high-ranking military officers charged with rebellion should not stand trial, arguing that what took place was not a "coup" but a "vacuum of power" that had been generated by the announcement of Chávez's resignation made by Gen. Lucas Rincón Romero.[12] On March 12, 2004, the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court ruled that the recusals were unconstitutional, the hearing was invalid, and the military officers (by then retired) may stand trial.[13]

      On November 18, 2004, leading state prosecutor Danilo Anderson was assassinated, shortly before he was scheduled to bring charges against 400 people who allegedly participated in the coup.

      Meanwhile Carmona and several other participants in the events of 11 April went into exile. After Chávez announced there would be no reprisals for those involved in the coup, Ortega and several of his co-conspirators came out of hiding in Venezuela.
      [edit]

      Irish documentary

      Main article: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (documentary)

      A television crew from Ireland (Radio Telefís Éireann), which happened to be recording a documentary about Chávez at the time, recorded images of the events that contradicted explanations given by anti-Chávez campaigners, the private media, the United States Department of State, and then White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. The documentary features footage shot after the short coup that was based largely in the presidential palace with members of both rival governments and their supporters.

      The film has won awards at many film festival screenings where it was shown. It has been widely debated among both supporters and critics of the Venezuelan government.

      The film creators state that there had been threats to the Amnesty International Film Festival if they showed the documentary. Director Wolfgang Schalk had attempted to stop screenings of the film.[14][15] Several organizations argue the events are correctly portrayed in the documentary.[16] Others consider that the film omits and misrepresents important events. Members of the Venezuelan opposition claim that it has been widely used by the Venezuelan government for propaganda purposes and have created documentaries of their own as a response.[17][18][19]
      [edit]

      Oliver Stone Film Rumors

      On Sunday, 21 May 2006, during his weekly "Aló Presidente" television show, Hugo Chávez stated that Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone and British producer John Daly were planning to make a movie about the April 2002 coup. He said that the Venezuelan government had given them permission to make the announcement at the Cannes Film Festival.[20] Chávez said that Daly had flown to Caracas several months earlier and that he had met with Daly for half an hour at the presidential residence.[21] He also said that both Stone and Daly had called Venezuela on Sunday to discuss the plans and the announcement.[22]

      On Tuesday, 23 May 2006, both Oliver Stone and John Daly denied that they had plans to make a film about Chávez and said that they had never engaged in such discussions. Oliver Stone said, "Rumors that I am directing a film about the 2002 coup in Venezuela are untrue and unfounded" in an e-mail statement sent to the Associated Press from his publicist.[22]


      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezue...ttempt_of_2002

      The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (also Chavez: Inside the Coup) is a 2002 documentary about the April 2002 Venezuelan coup attempt which briefly deposed Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

      A television crew from Ireland's Radio Telifís Éireann happened to be recording a documentary about Chávez during the events of April 11, 2002. Shifting focus, they followed the events as they occurred. During their filming, the crew recorded images of the events that contradicted explanations given by Chávez opposition, the private media, the US State Department, and then White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer. The documentary concluded that the coup was the result of a conspiracy between various old guard and anti-Chávez factions within Venezuela and the United States.

      The film has won awards at the film festival screenings where it was shown. IMDb. Although the documentary was not widely distributed, a number of groups, such as Venezuela Solidarity and Hands Off Venezuela, are distributing copies on DVD for free or a small donation. It is currently available for free in Google video. A Spanish language documentary, Venezuela Bolivariana: People and Struggle of the Fourth World War, covers much of the same subject and uses some footage from The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.


      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rev...documentary%29
      PACER FAN ON STRIKE!!!-The moment the Pacers fire Larry Bird I will cheer for them again.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Chavez in Harlem!!!!!!!!!!!!

        I have a friend from Haiti and you should hear all the crap the U.S has done in that country.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Chavez in Harlem!!!!!!!!!!!!

          While I agree the US certainly does interfere with other countries politics. There is little evidence that the US had anything to do with the coup and no evidence that we were going to assassinate Chavez.
          "They could turn out to be only innocent mathematicians, I suppose," muttered Woevre's section officer, de Decker.

          "'Only.'" Woevre was amused. "Someday you'll explain to me how that's possible. Seeing that, on the face of it, all mathematics leads, doesn't it, sooner or later, to some kind of human suffering."

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Chavez in Harlem!!!!!!!!!!!!

            Knowing that the possability that is still out there you can see why he would do, and say the things he has.
            PACER FAN ON STRIKE!!!-The moment the Pacers fire Larry Bird I will cheer for them again.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Chavez in Harlem!!!!!!!!!!!!

              Originally posted by DrBadd01 View Post
              Knowing that the possability that is still out there you can see why he would do, and say the things he has.
              The possiblity that the US can do that to any country is out there, so does that mean that Chirac has free reign to say the same type of things?

              Just because someone is paranoid, doesn't give them a free pass to say whatever he wants, whenever he wants to say them.
              Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Chavez in Harlem!!!!!!!!!!!!

                But we didn't invlove ourselves in France's governmental affairs, and last I checked Chirac has never had a coup come up against him. There was a coup attempt in Venezuela and I don't know about you, but I certainly do believe that it is possible that we had something to do with it.
                PACER FAN ON STRIKE!!!-The moment the Pacers fire Larry Bird I will cheer for them again.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Chavez in Harlem!!!!!!!!!!!!

                  Originally posted by DrBadd01 View Post
                  But we didn't invlove ourselves in France's governmental affairs, and last I checked Chirac has never had a coup come up against him. There was a coup attempt in Venezuela and I don't know about you, but I certainly do believe that it is possible that we had something to do with it.
                  We probably didn't discourage it.

                  -Bball
                  Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.

                  ------

                  "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork."

                  -John Wooden

                  Comment

                  Working...
                  X