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

2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

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

  • Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

    Originally posted by BillS View Post
    This only applies if you think the worst team in the WC is better than the Pacers. We could go with that if the Pacers were a doughnut against the West, but they are 18-11.

    Let's play a little game and do some calculations based on our current winning percentages against the East and West multiplied by the increased number of games.

    One of our remaining games is against the West, for the sake of argument I'll assume we would lose it, that makes us 18-12, or 60%. Simplifying it (not taking into account what division and whether we'd play who 4 times or 3 or whatever), for 52 games that would make us 31-21 in the conference.

    Our record against the East, again for argument's sake assuming we lose out, would be 30-22, or 57% (oh, look, WORSE than our record against the West...) or, assuming we play the EXACT percentage we have now, should be 65% or 34-18. Using the worst case, our new "western conference" record against those wimpy East teams would be 17-13, and the average case would be 20-10. In the former situation, we'd total 48-34. In the latter, we'd be 51-31. Those are percentages of .585 and .622, respectively. If everyone in the West finishes this year with the EXACT percentage they have RIGHT NOW, we'd be 6th. Gosh, JUST WHERE USING OUR CURRENT RECORD PLACES US.

    Now, that would be skewed a bit depending which division we were in playing either LAC or SAS 4 times vs playing them only 3, perhaps, but this shows that the current record is really not that far off from where we'd be if we were really playing in the West.

    Now, this is without using the intangible of perhaps building a team differently based on the higher offense style in the West, or having more of an ability to adjust based on playing teams a third or fourth time or even speculating which of those super west conference teams would end up in the east if we were in the west.

    Bottom line, though, is that it is NOT BEYOND THE REALM OF POSSIBILITY that we'd be AT LEAST a mid-level playoff team in the West.

    Who is debating your last statement? I said the Pacers would be a 6th seed if in the WC. Uncle Buck said even with the Pacers current record they'd only have the 6th best record. IMO, too many feel the Pacers would be competing for a 2-3 seed as if they were in the EC. I was just trying to point out that's being Pacer optimistic to the nth degree. I'm sure we both agree the Pacers would be a playoff team in the WC, just not seeded as high as in the EC.

    People need to look at the conferences standings. Milwaukee is in 8 place with Philly so far back with little hope to overtake the Bucks. OTOH, the WC has a number of teams fighting for the playoffs with each having a chance to make it. The parity among WC teams is so much closer than the parity of the EC teams. IIRC, the 3 teams in the NBA with the fewest wins are Charlotte, Orlando, and Cleveland. Both Charlotte and Orlando have less than 20 wins while the fewest wins in the WC is Phoenix with 23.

    Comment


    • Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

      Originally posted by graphic-er View Post
      Reggie loving the Pacers, good. But I wonder why the organization hasn't reach out to Reggie for some pep talks, off season shooting coaching, etc.... Dude lives in Malibu, PG and Granger both live in LA during the offseason. But I recall an article back when Reggie had his recent TNT broadcast in Bankerslife, and I recall him saying that the Pacers have never asked him to visit the team or anything. Crazy if that is true.

      They don't want him because he doesn't know what smashmouth basketball is.
      @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

      Comment


      • Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

        Originally posted by Justin Tyme View Post
        I was just trying to point out that's being Pacer optimistic to the nth degree. I'm sure we both agree the Pacers would be a playoff team in the WC, just not seeded as high as in the EC.
        I guess my problem is that I agree it is optimistic, but not necessarily to "the nth degree". It doesn't take many changes in training camp or personnel to focus on the idea that 52 games will be played against West style ball vs. East style ball. It's optimistic because there's nothing close to facts that would show it to be a certainty, but when you think that playing exactly the way we have been this season, only suddenly being thrust into the West, makes us 6th, it isn't ridiculous at all to think that by actually being prepared to play a season in that environment we wouldn't be able to step it up and move to the upper half. 2nd is perhaps a bit too far, but 3-4?

        And there actually has been some implication that because the competition in the West is so much better the Pacers might do WORSE than in the East (that directly comparing the records skewed the results), which is what I was answering.
        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


        • Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

          WOO GO HAWKS!

          Comment


          • Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

            Re "if the Pacers were in the West, they'd have to play more top teams" arguments... well, so would the Grizzlies and the Nuggets and the Clippers. I mean, they would have one more strong team in their conference, no? Their records would suffer as well.

            In the end, there's no argument that the Pacers are 48-27 right now, which would be 6th in the West and 9th overall. There's also no argument that the Pacers started the season 10-11 and then Paul George broke out. And since then, the Pacers have top 4 or top 5 record in the league. So they are playing a bit better lately than their record would show. Overall, I don't see a good argument of why the Pacers aren't at the same level as the Grizzlies or the Clippers. I think there's a group of top contenders (Miami, OKC, SA) and then a group of B-level contenders (Clippers, Indiana, Nuggets, Memphis, possibly NY, not sure about them). The Nuggets might be out of that group right now because of the Lawson injury, and the Clippers would easily be in the top tier if they found a coach who would draw some offensive plays for their starting lineup. But the Pacers IMO are clearly in that group.

            As for what would be if would be... i think it's more complicated and less predictable than we could tackle here.

            Anyway, I'm surprised that my post two days ago started this whole emotional (and even condescending in case of some posters) discussion about East vs. West. And that this discussion is still alive.
            I don't think anyone would argue that West is a bit deeper.
            In that post, I was simply replying to a guy who pointed out that the East's 10th team had 27 wins. Which was historically bad -- on pace to be the worst 10th team in the East in over a decade -- but the Wizards will likely win enough games to avoid it. I said it's because of injuries, and that the West would also improve if healthy. And for some reason, it turned into this whole drama.

            Comment


            • Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

              man carmelo stop shooting

              Comment


              • Originally posted by immortality View Post
                man carmelo stop shooting
                Why?

                If a guy is as talented as Carmelo at scoring, and he's as red hot as melo is right now, there are few things more entertaining than watching him run it up.

                Reminds me a little of 2006 Kobe.

                It wasn't about being the team everyone loved, it was about beating the teams everyone else loved.

                Division Champions 1955, 1956, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
                Conference Champions 1955, 1956, 1988, 2005
                NBA Champions 1989, 1990, 2004

                Comment


                • Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

                  If Atlanta can beat the Knicks and the Bucks can beat the Wolves, i'll call this a great day.
                  If the Pistons could somehow beat the Celtics on top of it...

                  Comment


                  • Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

                    Jrue Holiday's in the midst of a 1-21 shooting night

                    Comment


                    • Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

                      Ahh, Calderon is out. Pistons look imposing and a mess at the same time.

                      Comment


                      • Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

                        12/15/3 for everyone's favorite Pacer McBob tonight. Guy's been pretty good in Charlotte.

                        Comment


                        • Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

                          Originally posted by Kstat View Post
                          Why?

                          If a guy is as talented as Carmelo at scoring, and he's as red hot as melo is right now, there are few things more entertaining than watching him run it up.

                          Reminds me a little of 2006 Kobe.
                          haha. was being sarcastic :<. just wanted the knicks to lose, looks like it is not not going to happen this game.

                          Comment


                          • Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

                            RT @johnschuhmann Obligatory tweet: The Bobcats are now 5-1 in home games that Josh McRoberts has started.

                            Dude's ballin. Real happy for him.

                            Comment


                            • Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

                              Originally posted by Heisenberg View Post

                              12/15/3 for everyone's favorite Pacer McBob tonight. Guy's been pretty good in Charlotte.

                              So was Augustin. So is Gerald Henderson.

                              Still I wish McBob well. Hopefully, MJ will think so too, and McBob won't have to look for another new team for next season. It will be interesting to see what kind of money McBob gets on next years contract.

                              Comment


                              • Re: 2012-13 NBA Random Thoughts Thread IX: Ode to Joy

                                Geez....Melo is on fire.

                                Also...Frickin Hawks fans were chanting MVP to Melo at the end of the game. I hate it when home town fans start chanting MVP for the opposing Teams Players.
                                Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X