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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.
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FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

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  • #76
    Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

    You forgot

    Comment


    • #77
      Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

      Hmm thats just scary..... I'm glad there just cartoons and out of reach from our dear kids
      Ya Think Ya Used Enough Dynamite there Butch...

      Comment


      • #78
        Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

        Originally posted by Hicks
        What's this nonsense about not giving up a 1st for Harrington (from some of you) ? Hello, a guaranteed starting-quality PF in his prime for less than half of the max right now, or a first round, non-lottery pick next year that God only knows how it will work out. This is incredible.
        Finally, Exactly right!! Thank you for putting it in perspective, wow, I'm shocked it took this long,

        Comment


        • #79
          Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

          Originally posted by Jay@Section204
          I'm not convinced "cancer" is the right word for any of our players.

          SJax has a bunch of issues. Fights with his coaches and teammates during games. Ballhogs. Doesn't give effort to get back on defense. Very low bballIQ or understanding of the limitations of his own game.

          I think his teammates like him, though. He doesn't seem like the back-stabbing type. Unless you're a Crip... I'd be worried then. I'm kidding. Maybe.

          Jack seems totally out-of-touch with what the fans want, and I agree with that 100%. Whether or not he's out-of-touch with what management/ coaches/ teammates want, well most of us think so but who knows.

          I know this, I won't miss him at all when he's gone.

          But I'm not sure he's a cancer. Just a dislikable player with an ultralow bballIQ that gives physical effort but hurts the team in so many ways with mental mistakes.
          That may be the best synopsis of SJax I've ever read. The dude needs moved. Maybe if he were the 5th option or so, his mistakes could be hidden - but you'd still have the arguing with refs, so... Just get rid of him. If we traded Ron when the whole league knew he has a TON of baggage, and had demanded a trade, Jackson is not untradeable.
          It's a new day for Pacers Basketball.

          Comment


          • #80
            Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

            Originally posted by Jay@Section204
            I'm not convinced "cancer" is the right word for any of our players.

            SJax has a bunch of issues. Fights with his coaches and teammates during games. Ballhogs. Doesn't give effort to get back on defense. Very low bballIQ or understanding of the limitations of his own game.

            I think his teammates like him, though. He doesn't seem like the back-stabbing type. Unless you're a Crip... I'd be worried then. I'm kidding. Maybe.

            Jack seems totally out-of-touch with what the fans want, and I agree with that 100%. Whether or not he's out-of-touch with what management/ coaches/ teammates want, well most of us think so but who knows.

            I know this, I won't miss him at all when he's gone.

            But I'm not sure he's a cancer. Just a dislikable player with an ultralow bballIQ that gives physical effort but hurts the team in so many ways with mental mistakes.
            That's a damn good post.

            Comment


            • #81
              Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

              Originally posted by Jay@Section204
              But I'm not sure he's a cancer. Just a dislikable player with an ultralow bballIQ that gives physical effort but hurts the team in so many ways with mental mistakes.
              If only more player criticisms were this level-headed, then I could actually not after reading them.

              I understand that there are plenty of younger posters on here, and from experience I certainly know that this is an "emotional" stage of life, from 14-22, but trust a guy that had plenty of meltdowns over plenty of things that ended up not really being so bad that its never that bad, and there are plenty of shades of gray in the range of opinions.

              No one player, nor Rick, is killing the team or saving the team. If all Jack did was bad it would be hella obvious compared to what we've seen, a case of "if you think this is bad...". Cancer is just thrown around way too often. Whatever happened to "not such a great player"?

              That's why I stuck those photos of him calming down AJ when he was losing it over a call. It shows you that it wasn't always Jack being the problem. I've seen that repeated many times by him, calming another guy down or even learning to SPEAK to refs instead of flipping out on them. He never used to do that, so its improvement.

              Doesn't mean he doesn't lose focus, make terrible decisions at times, get lazy, etc. Just means that its not 90% that stuff. He's a mixed bag, and if he wasn't he would be gone.


              I like his good stuff, dislike his errors, and I try to stay optimistic that he will improve the bad things since I've seen him do it a little already, for example his interaction with refs (the guy went from 6-8 techs in 2 months to 2-3 in 4 months, and that was just last season).

              So when Jay says "he's not a cancer, but he makes too many mistakes that hurt the team", that's an opinion I can respect even if I don't quite agree with it (I'd take out the "too" part since I think team can win with him still).



              PS - the best thing about this thread was glossing through and seeing Shade's pain at having to listen to 950.
              So dull it hits you like

              Comment


              • #82
                Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

                Don't laugh at my pain. I took one for the team!

                Comment


                • #83
                  Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

                  Originally posted by Shade
                  Don't laugh at my pain. I took one for the team!
                  You knew the risk when you tuned in the show.


                  At least it was an interview with a good source. Only problem is that Smith puts his stuff out there so much that it would be surprising if 950 got more out of him in an interview. He'll blog this deal being official long before 950 could get in touch with him.

                  Comment


                  • #84
                    Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

                    If Jack hurts the team then how come his record when he plays is better than with JO, Tinsley, Peja, Foster. Every bad thing that you can apply to Jack can be applied to JO and Tins, Peja didn't play Defense so it really didn't matter if he didn't get back.

                    The only thing JO does better is talk to the media. And frankly talk is cheap.

                    The only thing Tins does better is talk to his trainer.

                    Face it, this fanbase always needs one person and just one person to blame for every one of the teams problems its always been that way.

                    Right now its Jack, before it was carlisle, before that it was Artest, before that it was stern, before that it was Zeke. It just goes on. Its called personal accountability. When their is this much badness EVERYBODY is to blame.

                    The only reason Jack argued with the refs more than Tinsley and JO, was because they were on the bench half the season. These bums wouldn't play through a flu for you guys and here is a guy that has a back injury playing to represent you. And you hate him. How pathetic is that.

                    He cares enough about this team thats fanbase hates him to play through a back injury. JO doesn't care enough about this teams fanbase to play through a flu. Kinda says something about their character doesn't it.

                    Comment


                    • #85
                      Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

                      Originally posted by Jay@Section204
                      I'm not convinced "cancer" is the right word for any of our players.
                      I think you're right. Artest was a cancer. Stephen Jackson is more like a "sinus infection" in the Pacers locker room. He spreads like wildfire through the team sapping their energy, making them testy, making some long for the fresh air of another team's locker room.

                      A player with the tag of "sinus infection" is difficult to unload. Sure an infection is supposed to be easily treated but some forms are resistant to treatment. The atmosphere in the Pacers locker room is so icky nothing ever gets better there.

                      Comment


                      • #86
                        Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

                        I would like to add that as captain JO is the one that's supposed to be talking to the refs. Jackson does it way too much. It's annoying to watch, I can only imagine what it would be like to be his teammate. Having said that I think Steven is alright. He plays really hard when he's not jawing at the refs. If he can improve on his streaky shooting and put a sock in it then I hope he stays.

                        Comment


                        • #87
                          Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

                          JO's on the bench half the time. He supposed to get up in street clothes and start talking to the ref.

                          Face it, Jack was the teams leader when he argued with the refs alot of the time. Because alot of the time we didn't have JO or Peja. So if its the team leaders job to argue with the ref, how can you fault him for it.

                          Comment


                          • #88
                            Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

                            No, I said captain, not leader. Steven is not the captain. If you can't admit that Steven's behavior towards the refs has cost us alot of fast break points then either you don't watch the Pacers that much, or you are Steven Jackson.

                            Comment


                            • #89
                              Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

                              Originally posted by Destined4Greatness
                              If Jack hurts the team then how come his record when he plays is better than with JO, Tinsley, Peja, Foster. Every bad thing that you can apply to Jack can be applied to JO and Tins, Peja didn't play Defense so it really didn't matter if he didn't get back.

                              The only thing JO does better is talk to the media. And frankly talk is cheap.

                              The only thing Tins does better is talk to his trainer.

                              Face it, this fanbase always needs one person and just one person to blame for every one of the teams problems its always been that way.

                              Right now its Jack, before it was carlisle, before that it was Artest, before that it was stern, before that it was Zeke. It just goes on. Its called personal accountability. When their is this much badness EVERYBODY is to blame.

                              The only reason Jack argued with the refs more than Tinsley and JO, was because they were on the bench half the season. These bums wouldn't play through a flu for you guys and here is a guy that has a back injury playing to represent you. And you hate him. How pathetic is that.

                              He cares enough about this team thats fanbase hates him to play through a back injury. JO doesn't care enough about this teams fanbase to play through a flu. Kinda says something about their character doesn't it.
                              Well, personally, I hate Jackson because he's not a good player. Sure, when he catches fire, he can hit 5 in a row - but then he cools off and misses twice that many before making another one. He's terribly inconsistent, he makes very poor decisions, goes off on his own far too much...Jackson is just not that good of a player.

                              Then, when you compound those qualities with the whining at the refs and missing his defensive assignments...it adds up to a guy not many people will like.

                              Yes, he does display heart and dedication, but sometimes, you need things like talent and intelligence.
                              It's a new day for Pacers Basketball.

                              Comment


                              • #90
                                Re: FYI: Sekou Smith on next on ESPN950

                                Originally posted by redwillow
                                No, I said captain, not leader. Steven is not the captain. If you can't admit that Steven's behavior towards the refs has cost us alot of fast break points then either you don't watch the Pacers that much, or you are Steven Jackson.
                                No I can admit it, but does that mean he deserves to be traded. If so Bye Jermaine. Because he does it too. You can't even spell his name right which means A) You don't know jack about the Pacers B) You never gave him a chance.


                                All those things describe JO too, Pizza guy.

                                All the Faults of both Jack and Tinsley are combined in JO and he gets paid more than both combined. And yet people want to ship out those two, and build around JO. Why, because JO talks the talk. Well I am sorry talk is cheap.

                                Comment

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