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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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Doyel: Pacers handle transfer of power delicately

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  • #1

    Doyel: Pacers handle transfer of power delicately

    INDIANAPOLIS – First of all, Victor Oladipo doesn’t mean it. Not really. That pointing thing he does, both index fingers toward the court at Bankers Life Fieldhouse? His city? That’s not true.

    “This is Myles’ city,” Oladipo is telling me Monday night, and I’m telling you: His face was straight. He meant it. But my stupid eyebrows, I can’t always control them. He said what he said, and my eyebrows rose. Oladipo saw it. He kept going.

    “It is his city,” he says. “I just came here to team up with Myles, honestly.”

    Oladipo lockers next to Myles Turner, the Indiana Pacers’ 21-year-old center and the player we all thought would own this city after, you know, him. Paul George. That cat, as talented as he is, never wanted to own this city. PG was leasing us with an eye on an upgrade, and he forced his way out of town on June 30, the Pacers trading him to Oklahoma City. Here was the logical assumption around here:

    And so begins the Myles Turner era …

    Hadn’t our own Larry Bird, when he ran the Pacers, declared that Myles Turner “is going to be great”? Yes, as a matter of fact, he had. And Bird went on to say: “I think he’s got a chance to be one of the best players, or maybe the best player (in franchise history).”

    Hadn’t a rival coach, Doc Rivers of the Los Angeles Clippers, said just seven months earlier that “Turner is going to be a superstar”? Yes, as a matter of fact, he had. And Rivers went on to say: “I think no one will argue that. In fact, it will probably happen quicker than any of us thought. He’s special.”

    We’re learning just how special, though it’s a different kind of special. What we’ve seen is Myles Turner, bequeathed the keys to the franchise by no less an authority than Larry Bird, graciously hand them over to Victor Oladipo.

    It’s a special kind of greatness we’re seeing at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, one that may well continue for years. The NBA being what it is, egos being what they are, you can never be too sure. One year after winning an NBA championship in Cleveland, Kyrie Irving forced his way to Boston because it was beneath him to play second fiddle to anyone, even LeBron James. The NBA: Where the unfathomable happens.

    But Oladipo and Turner are saying all the right things, including Oladipo’s assertion that he doesn’t really mean it when he points wordlessly to the court, the gesture saying what he won’t say anymore, though he did blurt it on Oct. 29 after beating San Antonio with a 3-pointer in the final seconds: “This is my city!”

    Nah. Not really.

    This is Myles’ city.

    As for Turner, he’s not having it. If he and Oladipo are clashing over anything, it’s over this: Who can be more humble?

    “I don’t think anybody’s focusing on being a star here, or this being their city,” is how Turner was putting it Monday night. “Everybody plays for each other in this locker room.”

    Here, I interrupt to whisper something to Turner. We’re in the locker room, and like I said, Oladipo has the next locker. And he’s sitting right there! So I’m pointing slyly at Oladipo and I’m whispering to Turner:

    That’s what he said, too.

    “Well, it’s true,” Turner says. “I think that’s what’s made us so good this year. We have Vic, Domas (Sabonis), Cory (Joseph), Lance (Stephenson), myself – it could be anybody’s night, any night. That’s just how our offense is set up, and the structure of the team is set up.”

    This is working, this delicate transfer of power, because Turner and Oladipo are making it work. They are equal partners in this, but let’s start with Turner and his reaction to the news that the Pacers had acquired two rising stars in Oladipo and Sabonis for Paul George. For context, understand what George had done the previous offseason, in June 2016, when the Pacers acquired one-time All-Star point guard Jeff Teague: Nothing. Good ol’ PG, he waited for training camp to get to know his new teammate.

    Turner? When the Pacers acquired Oladipo and Sabonis, he immediately got their phone numbers.

    “I just did it because I wanted to get to know the guy,” Turner says of Oladipo. “I’d seen him play, just wanted to know him. Same with Domas. Just reached out to make his acquaintance.”

    That’s where it starts.

    “First of all, before basketball, Myles is a great person,” Oladipo says. “We were in communication throughout the summer.”

    And as for Oladipo, well, he didn’t come here looking to put his foot down – or his index fingers down; that just sort of happened – according to Pacers coach Nate McMillan.

    “That kid doesn’t show an ego,” McMillan says of Oladipo. “It’s all about team. He hasn’t come in with the mindset that this is his. His approach is, he has to earn everything that he gets, and he’s doing that by showing us who he is: a guy who comes in and prepares himself … and (teammates) respect that. They respect when you come in and you work hard. It’s not chatter. It’s by example, the things you do and say.”

    Oladipo does the finger-point thing and Pacers fans love it because, frankly, it’s the anti-PG move. If the gesture doesn’t mean, as Oladipo insists, that this is his city, then here’s what it does mean for the former Indiana Hoosiers star: I’m home. And indeed, twice in our brief conversation Monday, Oladipo used the word “homecoming” to describe joining the Pacers.

    Already this season Oladipo has earned “MVP” chants at home, though his loudest cheerleader seems to be Myles Turner.

    “We're right there along with him,” Turner was saying earlier this season. “We tell Vic, 'Just go man.' ... It's great that he's being embraced by these fans here."

    All of this is nice and all, but chemistry goes only so far. At some point, Myles Turner is going to have to join Oladipo on the marquee. To be fair, what should have been Turner’s breakout season in Year 3 – he had 24 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shotson opening night Oct. 18 against Brooklyn – was gutted when he was diagnosed afterward with a concussion. He missed the next seven games, then missed nine more recently with an elbow injury, and has been treading water with numbers (13.6 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.2 blocks in 28.7 minutes per game) similar to last season (14.5 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 2.1 bpg in 31.4 minutes).

    Oladipo has taken off, averaging 24.1 ppg and earning his first All-Star spot. That’s good, Nate McMillan says, but he wants more. He wants the same from Turner, and the Pacers coach responded this way when I asked him whose city this is, anyway:

    “It has to be both guys,” McMillan said. “(We) have to develop both of these guys into something. Victor has developed into an All-Star this year, and Myles, we hope that one day he will be one of those, because we’re going to need both of them to develop into those type of players to win big.”

    And have you told Myles that?

    “Well sure,” McMillan said. “I’ve talked to him. Well, both those guys, I talked to Victor, and to Myles. As I said to those guys at the beginning of the season: People need to be talking about you becoming an All-Star this year or next year.”

    One down. One to go?


    “Victor just developed into that,” McMillan said. “He developed into a go-to guy by some of the things he’s done. It could have been Myles. It could be Myles.”

    And Sabonis, McMillan adds, and there go my eyebrows again. Not because he said something silly – Sabonis, averaging 12.6 ppg and 8.4 rpg in just 25.5 minutes, is 21 years old and we have no idea how high his ceiling is – but because the Pacers have not two great young players, but three. On Monday night when the Pacers beat Charlotte 105-96, Oladipo had 25 points on 11-for-15 shooting and blocked a Dwight Howard shot at the rim, Turner had 22 points on 8-for-11 shooting that included four 3-pointers, and Sabonis had his team-best 12th double-double: 11 points, 10 rebounds.

    “That’s our core,” McMillan says of the Oladipo-Turner-Sabonis triumvirate, sounding proud like a papa, and there is no sibling rivalry here. When the Pacers rallied past Orlando on Saturday night, it was Turner – who didn’t play the final 8½ minutes – sprinting off the bench to hug Sabonis and Oladipo.

    They could own this town if they wanted, any of them, but they are crazy about each other and content to share. Take it from the guy with the most famous index fingers in town. His city? Sort of. But not really.

    “It’s a big city,” Oladipo says. “The city is all of ours.”
    Tags: None
    • 7 likes
  • #2
    Great article. Thanks for sharing. It's good to know that Nate recognizes that Dipo/Myles/Domas are our core.
    Originally posted by IrishPacer
    Empty vessels make the most noise.
    • 5 likes

    Comment

    • #3
      What is it about the idea that Pacer players own the town? You don't really hear that about the Colts. I don't recall people in Chicago talking about Michael Jordan owning the town. I guess...is this a Pacer thing? Is it that the city is so small that a basketball player could own it? I suppose Reggie Miller did if anyone.

      Comment

      • #4
        I noticed that Myles mentioned CoJo and not Collison. I'm not saying Collison hasn't been solid, because he's been very solid, but Myles brought up CoJo. That's who the players trust, imo.

        Comment

        • #5
          Great PR piece, I’m mean is not like Nate is going to say “yeah neither guy is a piece to build around, we are trading them all”, of course he is going to say that just the same way PG told us he wanted to win a championship here and everybody was eating it.


          Also people need to stop telling Myles that he is this great player because that might be the reason why he has been **** all year, expectations are killing him right now.

          @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

          Comment

          • #6
            Originally posted by imawhat View Post
            I noticed that Myles mentioned CoJo and not Collison. I'm not saying Collison hasn't been solid, because he's been very solid, but Myles brought up CoJo. That's who the players trust, imo.
            He didn't mention Thad either. Or Bojan. He only mentioned the players that people have talked about being here long-term. Vic, Domas, CoJo, Lance and himself.
            Originally posted by IrishPacer
            Empty vessels make the most noise.

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