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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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Enie Meanie Miney Moe

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  • #16
    Re: Enie Meanie Miney Moe

    Originally posted by Roaming Gnome View Post
    How can you say that when Rick basically tailored his offensive game plan to fit J.O.'s need for the ball deep in the post? Many times, I felt Rick tailored the offense to benefit J.O. at the detriment of the rest of the team. I'm just hopeing a new coach will come in here and design a game plan that is not so dependent on feeding the post ad nausium. I guess I'm wanting a new coach for a different reason. I want a guy that will make J.O. a part of his system versus making J.O. the system. This is all moot if J.O. is gone.
    This is why I felt like it killed JO's FG%. I don't have the raw numbers but it felt like JO's FG% was generally a bit higher under Zeke than Rick. Usually if you give one guy the ball and ask him to score a bazillion points, his FG% will be lower than if he had been working as part of a team. I think we're basically wanting the same thing.
    You, Never? Did the Kenosha Kid?

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    • #17
      Re: Enie Meanie Miney Moe

      Originally posted by Roaming Gnome View Post
      I know that it is status Quo to hate on Isiah, but one thing that I didn't hear anyone complain about under Isiah was how Jermaine played, or was used.
      I'm not as familiar with how Zeke used JONeal during his tenure here. Was JONeal the focus of the offense?

      or

      Did we have more scoring options outside of JONeal ( as in Reggie ) so that we didn't have to run the offense through him?
      Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

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      • #18
        Re: Enie Meanie Miney Moe

        Originally posted by CableKC View Post
        Minor point.....Nash wasn't traded...I think he outright signed with the Suns.

        Shaq and VC basically forced the issue...so they got traded for a pair of "2nd tier players" ( in Shaq's case ) and ( in VCs case ) pretty much close to nothing.

        IMHO.....these "All-Star trades for peanuts" are trades that are usually forced on the team with the All-Star that is dissatisfied ( for example, the Shaq trade and the Iverson trade ) and puts the GM in a bad negotiating position.

        I really hope that JONeal keeps his mouth shut and locks himself up in his palacial mansion. I don't want him to do what Kobe essentially did and forced the Lakers to do whatever they have to do to get a decent player in to play next to him.
        I didn't say traded - but I've heard fairly consistent claims that getting a star is impossible and then I see major - and I mean ULTRA major players switch teams all the time.

        Maybe a month into my tenure at PD I got into it with btown about this issue. I said that TPTB always want to trade a veteran and get younger players in return. I was saying in 2004 that this was the wrong direction for the Pacers' future. We needed to use our (at the time) very deep bench and bring in a superstar. The retort is always the same: that will never happen, we don't have the pieces to do it!

        Only months later, Vince Carter goes to New Jersey for nothing. We could have made a better deal, and we didn't.

        I'm just saying you never know what you're capable of until you try.
        “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill

        “If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning.” - Catherine Aird

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        • #19
          Re: Enie Meanie Miney Moe

          Originally posted by Los Angeles View Post
          I didn't say traded - but I've heard fairly consistent claims that getting a star is impossible and then I see major - and I mean ULTRA major players switch teams all the time.

          Maybe a month into my tenure at PD I got into it with btown about this issue. I said that TPTB always want to trade a veteran and get younger players in return. I was saying in 2004 that this was the wrong direction for the Pacers' future. We needed to use our (at the time) very deep bench and bring in a superstar. The retort is always the same: that will never happen, we don't have the pieces to do it!

          Only months later, Vince Carter goes to New Jersey for nothing. We could have made a better deal, and we didn't.

          I'm just saying you never know what you're capable of until you try.
          I understand that this happens from time to time...but my whole point is that the very examples that you give ( Shaq, VC and...I'm guessing...Iverson...to a certain degree ) are all trades that were made when the All-Star forced the issue with their previous employers that ( in the end ) forced one of these "All-Stars for Peanuts" trade.

          I don't know what we could have offered for VC at that time....but we all know..in the end..that Toronto was royally screwed in the end ONLY because their star player acted like a child. There is no way to know what the Raptors could have gotten had VC went the KG or JONeal route and said nothing while asking Management to quietly shop him.
          Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

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          • #20
            Re: Enie Meanie Miney Moe

            I think your point about star players forcing the issue is complimentary to my point about players often being available.

            I hate to harp on the VC deal, but at the time the Pacers were largely considered contenders. Who cares who we would have had to give up for him, we could have offered something.

            And to give credit where credit is due, TPTB was in talks for a Ron/Al/Bender for TMac deal. I don't know enough of the details to know who's fault it was that it didn't go through. I do know that at the time, we were in love with "potential." looking back, you have to ask - should we prioritize potential over "good right now" ever again?

            We have two options now: 1) Bring in a star - or - 2) get rid of our only star and pray to God that a couple of the guys we have left rise to the challenge.

            Both seem like long shots, but I'm really pulling for #1.
            “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill

            “If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning.” - Catherine Aird

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            • #21
              Re: Enie Meanie Miney Moe

              Originally posted by Los Angeles View Post
              We have two options now: 1) Bring in a star - or - 2) get rid of our only star and pray to God that a couple of the guys we have left rise to the challenge.

              Both seem like long shots, but I'm really pulling for #1.
              I'm tracking with you on the whole post, LA, but especially this part. Well said, and it describes my ambivalence towards trading JO for a bunch of decent-but-not-great young talent. They may solid players, but I'd rather have quality than quantity any day.
              This space for rent.

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              • #22
                Re: Enie Meanie Miney Moe

                Originally posted by SoupIsGood View Post
                I liked Rick, but his system was a killer to JO's FG%.
                *sigh*

                Run or no run, the killer to JO's FG% was a backcourt that couldn't hit a planted set shot with the defense all 10 feet away.
                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...

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                • #23
                  Re: Enie Meanie Miney Moe

                  Originally posted by Roaming Gnome View Post
                  How can you say that when Rick basically tailored his offensive game plan to fit J.O.'s need for the ball deep in the post? Many times, I felt Rick tailored the offense to benefit J.O. at the detriment of the rest of the team. I'm just hopeing a new coach will come in here and design a game plan that is not so dependent on feeding the post ad nausium. I guess I'm wanting a new coach for a different reason. I want a guy that will make J.O. a part of his system versus making J.O. the system.
                  The offense got him the ball, but it rarely got him easy shots.

                  I'm with you about JO being part of the system. Everybody needs to get moving on the offensive end, including JO. No more standing around.............
                  PSN: MRat731 XBL: MRat0731

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                  • #24
                    Re: Enie Meanie Miney Moe

                    I'm following LA and Anthem here when I say this and I know I have bought it up in the trade area of PD but, What is the point in giving up at star player like JO to get role players in return?

                    The way the NBA is played a team needs a wing threat and an inside threat. We have not had this since Reggie. Pre ball we were a far better team but since that (through no fault of the Pacers organisation) we have seen key focal points of this team dwindle away. DaSmash says that we have 3 seasons before JO has his 'downward spiral', so lets get him the wing threat we crave. Who that is I am not too sure on at the moment but this team needs it. Sure Danny has patches where he can be great but he is not the answer right now.

                    To address the fact that the Pacers were the most 'dunked on' team in the NBA. Have a look at the weak help defence that we saw this season. I agree with that. That is by no means JO's fault.

                    Oh, and for the record, I believe Sam Mitchell and JO can coexist. Bosh is a younger, left handed version of JO. Their game's are similar.
                    Haggard's Blog: Can't Buy a Basket. Covering the highs and lows of the NBL

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                    • #25
                      Re: Enie Meanie Miney Moe

                      Stackhouse is a FA.......hahahaha

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                      • #26
                        Re: Enie Meanie Miney Moe

                        Originally posted by DaSMASH View Post
                        I would even bet you that McHale, Bird and Ainge have all talked about just trading franchises, you know the Pacers go to Minnasota and the Wolves come here and the Celtics go to, well you know where the Celtics can go to…..


                        Love that line. Sig material right there...
                        Why do the things that we treasure most, slip away in time
                        Till to the music we grow deaf, to God's beauty blind
                        Why do the things that connect us slowly pull us apart?
                        Till we fall away in our own darkness, a stranger to our own hearts
                        And life itself, rushing over me
                        Life itself, the wind in black elms,
                        Life itself in your heart and in your eyes, I can't make it without you

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                        • #27
                          Re: Enie Meanie Miney Moe

                          Am I the only one who remembers that we brought in the "perfect wing threat" to compliment JO last year? What happened with that?
                          Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!

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                          • #28
                            Re: Enie Meanie Miney Moe

                            Originally posted by Kegboy View Post
                            Am I the only one who remembers that we brought in the "perfect wing threat" to compliment JO last year? What happened with that?
                            He sat out on the advise of his gynecologist.
                            “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill

                            “If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning.” - Catherine Aird

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