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

Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #76
    Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

    I think some of you, your brain short circuits when there isn't anything negative to talk about so you make up crap with hollow arguments just to have something to "female dog" about
    "Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

    Comment


    • #77
      Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

      Sometimes, I feel like this place is a never ending whine-fest. People expect a superstar to be added to this team every season, and throw an online hissy fit when it doesn't happen.

      If the players we added continue to play like they have now that they're on the Pacers, should we be better? Yes. If our young players improve should we be better? Yes. A combination of these things will make us quite a bit better. So, it's not a stretch to imagine this team is better than last year, and isn't that the goal of the off season?

      Granted, I'm not one of the people who's screaming you have to do something NOW if you EVER want to win a title, or omg you're soooo not trying to win!! As long as you don't have a team full of Murphleavy contracts then opportunities will present themselves to get better.

      Comment


      • #78
        Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

        Originally posted by Kemo View Post
        I think some of you, your brain short circuits when there isn't anything super Positive to talk about so you make up crap with hollow arguments like the ones were the Pacers are going to win a championship and have improved so much so if people disagrees with you you just have something to "female dog" And cry about
        Fixed
        Last edited by vnzla81; 09-02-2012, 09:35 PM.
        @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

        Comment


        • #79
          Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

          Originally posted by xBulletproof View Post
          Sometimes, I feel like this place is a never ending whine-fest.
          It looks to me like the "cry and whine-fest" is done by those that all they want to hear is positivity coming out of people's a**.

          There is not rainbows or balloons coming out of people's a** so let's complain, cry and b**** about how non-positive some people are, every single thread on this forum is getting hijacked by the crying, b***** and whining from the "positive group" but yeah it is the "negative ones" fault.....
          @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

          Comment


          • #80
            Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

            Originally posted by vnzla81 View Post
            It looks to me like the "cry and whine-fest" is done by those that all they want to hear is positivity coming out of people's a**.

            There is not rainbows or balloons coming out of people's a** so let's complain, cry and b**** about how non-positive some people are, every single thread on this forum is getting hijacked by the crying, b***** and whining from the "positive group" but yeah it is the "negative ones" fault.....
            Actually, the hijacking starts from the negative posts.

            Just look at this thread.

            The Pacers are reported to have signed Blake Ahearn, a PG that will fill our 14th spot and is a great FT shooter.

            Towards the end of the first page the first negative comments pops up (this off-season = zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz). And the thread gets derailed from there on.

            How long did we talk about the guy we signed? Not even for a full page.
            Originally posted by IrishPacer
            Empty vessels make the most noise.

            Comment


            • #81
              Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

              and vnzla ALWAYS is either the ringleader or one of the main ones.. it gets real tiresome..
              "Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

              Comment


              • #82
                Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

                Originally posted by Nuntius View Post

                How long did we talk about the guy we signed? Not even for a full page.
                how much is there to say? it's a guy none of us has probably ever seen play, who has shot about .300 in the NBA.

                Comment


                • #83
                  Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

                  Originally posted by dal9 View Post
                  how much is there to say? it's a guy none of us has probably ever seen play, who has shot about .300 in the NBA.
                  Actually, we all have seen him play. If you watched the Pacers vs Jazz SL game then you have seen him.

                  As for his percentages, I will counter the .273 FG% with his .970 FT%

                  And my point is not really to talk about Ahearn. Personally, I like it as a signing but I said all I had to say in the first page as well.

                  My point was that there's no need to derail a thread so much. Is this signing the reason that people don't like this off-season? I doubt it.
                  Originally posted by IrishPacer
                  Empty vessels make the most noise.

                  Comment


                  • #84
                    Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

                    Okay. So you're trying to convince us the all/most of the casual fans or potential fans were bored by our summer? Fair enough.

                    Now why would you or I care if they are or not? What's the point of this?
                    Below answers this-

                    This whole Indy is a bandwagon town is starting to get tiring.

                    Yes, Indy is a bandwagon town. Most towns are just like that. Wanna know why? Because most towns consist of casual fans. And casual fans tend to jump on and off bandwagons. That's the whole reason that they are called casual fans.
                    I hate the 'small market pity party, basketball Siberia discussions' and I hate the 'Indy sucks as a sports team because fans are fair weather, bandwagoners'. Indy is no different than most cities.
                    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


                    • #85
                      Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

                      Originally posted by vnzla81 View Post
                      It looks to me like the "cry and whine-fest" is done by those that all they want to hear is positivity coming out of people's a**.

                      There is not rainbows or balloons coming out of people's a** so let's complain, cry and b**** about how non-positive some people are, every single thread on this forum is getting hijacked by the crying, b***** and whining from the "positive group" but yeah it is the "negative ones" fault.....
                      I know, I know. It's never you.

                      Except it is.

                      Comment


                      • #86
                        Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

                        Originally posted by xBulletproof View Post
                        I know, I know. It's never us the cry babies and the "victims"

                        Except it is.
                        Fixed.
                        @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

                        Comment


                        • #87
                          Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

                          This signing really has me excited for the season to start.
                          "We've got to be very clear about this. We don't want our players hanging around with murderers," said Larry Bird, Pacers president.

                          Comment


                          • #88
                            Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

                            We had a really good team last year... They proved that they could compete with anybody... We got wins last season over every contender not named San Antonio... We had a series lead over the eventual champs... Our core is fairly young and improving... And the two starters that aren't still on the upswing of their careers are surly veterans with fire in their bellies that delivered good things for us last season... Though not perfect they are solid... We have Roy Hibbert who could be top 3-5 at his position this year... We have Paul George who is a near complete basketball player... He can do it all sans a few things... Namely ball handling, muscling up, and keeping focus... All fixable... He's your young high lotto talent that we didnt get in the rebuild years... If they redrafted that class today PG would be a top 5 pick... We have George Hill... A hometown kid that plays great D at the PG position and has ice in his veins in crunch time... All five of these guys are going to build on their cohesion from last year... They will have an advantage over the other teams for at least the first quarter of the season and beyond if they just keep building on it...

                            I don't see what major move that absolutely needed to happen this year didnt get done by management... Outside of praying that Steve Nash or Deron Williams would see the light that signing in Indy would be the best move for them... Well guess what guys... They obviously didn't see it that way... We move on... We should have been players for Elton Brand and Louis Scola... But the agents for Roy and GHill had set time tables for when we had to sign them... If we didn't abide Roy would have signed the Portland offer effectively holding our cap hostage until we matched (meaning no cap space for even Gerald Green, DJ Augustin, or Ian Mihinmi let alone Brand and Scola)... Or lost Roy for nothing or a bag of chips in a sign and trade... We would have then been left with cap space... But to sign who on the FA market that would have made an impact that Roy is capable of... We should have picked PJ33 (or any of about 5-7 second rounders some posters think will be miles better than Miles) over Miles... Miami traded away the pick immediately after ours for nothing... It was a serious crap shoot for any team picking in this range to pick up a serious value player... The people hating on our draft night performance act like we blew a high lotto pick or something...

                            People expected a fairy tale to happen in the offseason... Can't we just see how our current fairy tell ends? We are right in the middle of the ugly duckling... We had a roster full of middle first round draft picks and some terrible contracts to boot and in a short time turned into the 5th best team in the NBA who fought valiantly with the eventual champs... I don't think we've seen how this one ends yet...

                            And if it turns out that we aren't a swan THEN we start rebuilding this lineup...
                            Nothing in life worth having comes easy.

                            Comment


                            • #89
                              Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

                              Originally posted by Bball View Post
                              Below answers this-

                              I hate the 'small market pity party, basketball Siberia discussions' and I hate the 'Indy sucks as a sports team because fans are fair weather, bandwagoners'. Indy is no different than most cities.
                              Are you sure that you read what I wrote?

                              I wrote that Indy is a bandwagon city just like most cities. There's nothing wrong or unnatural in that. It's just what happens.

                              Casual fans tend to jump on and off bandwagons like no other. They follow the hype.

                              Why should we give a damn about it? That's what I don't get.
                              Originally posted by IrishPacer
                              Empty vessels make the most noise.

                              Comment


                              • #90
                                Re: Report: Pacers to Sign Blake Ahearn

                                Originally posted by vnzla81 View Post
                                Fixed.
                                vnzla, I didn't want to do this as I hate pointing fingers but your audacity is forcing me to do this.

                                Let's revisit this thread.

                                1st negative post:

                                Originally posted by vnzla81 View Post
                                Finally the rebuilding proccess is over I smell a Championship
                                2nd negative post:


                                Originally posted by Sollozzo View Post
                                Who?

                                This offseason = zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
                                3rd negative post:


                                Originally posted by Bball View Post
                                You got that right...
                                I don't want to hear anyone crying about the media (and fan) love the Colts are and will be getting. The Pacers made their bed with this BLAH off season. Hopefully the moves they made were the right ones because otherwise they haven't exactly stoked the fire any.

                                And it's only after Bball's post that people started responding to the negativity. Why? Because Bball's post is the first post that actually derails the thread by analyzing things that are off-topic.

                                So, once again you are wrong. It's you that started with the negativity. And then people responded.

                                Don't you like it when people respond to you? Do you feel that people are unjust to you and victimize you?

                                Here's an idea:

                                Stop stiring the pot each and every time you get the tiniest chance!

                                You cannot provoke people constantly and expect them to be ok with this.

                                To make matters worse, in this case it wasn't even you who made the biggest deal about it or derailed the thread so much. It's just that you tried to come out on top with those "fixes" of yours. That's the worst part.
                                Originally posted by IrishPacer
                                Empty vessels make the most noise.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X