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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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Are we contenders?

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  • Are we contenders?

    Are we contenders? I know myself and others wanted to cash in some of our role players. I thought since we had championship level role players we could cash in. Why didn’t we? I think it’s because the league is scared of Golden State, no one is giving up first rounders and young talent for role players they are waiting till buy out. Also because fans and players are expecting playoffs. If you go through our roster keeping in mind it’s the Danny Greens and Andre Iguodalas who make championships possible, you will see we have great defensive role players. We stood pat but these players are confident they can get out of the east, because all I hear on ESPN is “round 2 in the east will be so exciting” and “it’s up in the air between Milwaukee, Toronto, Boston, and Philadelphia”. Anyone who reads PD a lot knows that I think we need to rebuild ASAP, but the FO has kept the Team in tact, and for now I’m happy they didn’t trade AH, Sabonis and a bunch of picks for Conley. Great role players win championships, especially ones that defend and play as a team. We have more great role players than any other team. Can we shock the world and get out of the east? I think if games were truly officiated fairly we could, but stars and big markets will always get the benifit of the doubt on calls. Remember last year, Cleveland shot 50 FTs in game 7. But whatever happens I’m pretty sure despite poor showings vs Boston and Toronto right before Vic went down, we can Contend.

  • #2
    I think it totally depends on what you consider contending? Can we wins some games in the playoffs? Sure. Can we win a playoff series? Well my first instinct is to say hell no. But it totally depends on what position we end up in. If by some miracle we can end up at # 3? Yea, I'd take our chances of beating the Nets or whoever at that point.

    Do I think we can win in the second round? A game or two maybe. Do I think we could win in the second round? I think the odds are higher of finding sentient life on one of the moons of Saturn.

    There is an old saying "defense wins titles" and while true it really is secondary to this one universal truth in the NBA. Superstars win in the playoffs.

    We have a good team. We have sometimes a fun team to watch. We do not have any superstars on our team. Victor was close but not at that level yet. He might make it he might not due to the injury. But as much as I want to have a team of good players win a title or at least go to the finals it's just not realistic.

    So if by contend you mean be a playoff pain in the *** to someone, then yes.

    But if you mean actually contend for the title? No.
    Last edited by Peck; 02-08-2019, 04:11 AM.


    Basketball isn't played with computers, spreadsheets, and simulations. ChicagoJ 4/21/13

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    • #3
      With a healthy Oladipo, we have a good chance of being in the 2nd round/ECF territory. Right now, we're probably going for a 1st round exit, unless we finish 3rd in the East in which case we may make it to the 2nd round.
      Originally posted by Piston Prince
      Bobcat fans telling us to cheer up = epic fail season
      "Josh Smith Re-building the city of Detroit one brick at a time"

      Comment


      • #4
        Lately we just look like we have a ton of depth. Tyreke was pretty good on the Pelicans the year lance went to Charlotte. If he could step up in playoffs we can be as good as the other teams in east. Going cold could be an issue though. I made this thread because were kind of on the fence as far as having a realistic chance to reach ECFs.

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        • #5
          Championship contender this season? - NO.

          ECF contender this season? - NO. Unless the team gels to and unexpected (and marginally miraculous) level over the remainder of the season.

          2nd round contender? - MAYBE. Not only as a 3 seed, but I think even in an extremely tough 4 - seed matchup we could have a shot due to HCA.

          Competitive 1st round team? - ABSOLUTELY.

          Beyond this season, it will primarily boil down to what level of play Dipo can recuperate.
          I'd rather die standing up than live on my knees.

          -Emiliano Zapata

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          • #6
            I think people are overrating Philly and Boston. As if they are *so* unbeatable. We are unlikely to beat them I guess, but its far from some insane notion that we could win a series against one of them.
            Lifelong pacers fan

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            • #7
              I went on record earlier saying barring an injury to our first round opponent or a move by us we will get swept. With the addition of Wes Matthews I think it’s possible that we win a game or maybe even squeak out two, but I still believe we have virtually no chance of winning a series (again barring injury). I know we’ve been able to remain afloat at the 3 seed so far, but our March schedule is absolutely brutal and there’s no way, in my mind, that we come out of it still in the top 4 in the East. Which means that we’ll face one of Tor/Mil/Phi/Bos without homecourt in the playoffs... not good.
              Did you know Antonio and Dale aren’t actually brothers?

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              • #8
                Not after Dipo went down. I suspect the deadline would have gone differently if he was still on the floor, but even at that I wasn't expecting to be a contender in the sense of being all but a lock to be in the ECF with an even chance to go to the Finals. I was expecting that for next year. Now, we'll see.

                Sent from my LG-H700 using Tapatalk

                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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                • #9
                  There is only really one contender in the NBA. Everyone else is playing for second. That is the reality. Can the Pacers get to the conference finals? Possibly but that is about as far as I could see that happening.
                  {o,o}
                  |)__)
                  -"-"-

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                  • #10
                    If Oladipo was healthy we would be the second best team in the East. But then again we are the most boring team in the league so who knows.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      I think the Pacers play better team ball without Dipo. I'm not saying we are better without him, but guys step up and fill a lot of that gap. Without a dominant player like LeBron in the East it will help but I think there are big questions about how this team will compete in a real game. A Hornets team without AD is not a good measure. A Laker team with bad chemistry and an ailing LeBron is not a good measure. A gutted Clipper team is not a good measure. I just don't think we have good visibility on where this is going. I don't think losing Dipo is as big of a hit given the balance of our roster compared to the last 3 teams we've faced in terms of the players they were missing or were hurt. The measure for this team is coming though.

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                      • #12
                        They can win a first round series if they can somehow hold onto the 3rd seed. The way they're playing right now is inspiring. They've been surprising me all season long so I'm not going to bet against them.

                        Boston has been disappointing overall but they're playing really well over their last 10 games (loss to the Lakers last night is the exception). Philly has all the pieces but Embid and Butler could miss some games and they are very beatable without both of them playing. So, the Pacers need to finish better then at least one of those teams and lockdown home court advantage in the first round and give themselves a chance to advance.

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                        • #13
                          In any other professional sport, or amateur sport, absolutely. In the NBA, definitely not. Star players get treated differently from referees. Referees have huge influence dictating the outcomes of playoff games. Toronto, Milwaukee, Boston, and Philadelphia all have a huge advantage in the officiating matchups
                          Being unable to close out a game in which you have a comfortable lead in the 4th Q = Pulling a Frank Vogel

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                          • #14
                            Originally posted by PacersHomer View Post
                            If Oladipo was healthy we would be the second best team in the East. But then again we are the most boring team in the league so who knows.
                            Interesting, we weren't really holding onto the 2nd seed when he was healthy, and it's not exactly like other teams stayed in place. Would we be better than the Raptors that just added Marc Gasol, or better than the 76ers who added Tobias Harris, Bucks who added Mirotic?
                            Originally posted by Piston Prince
                            Bobcat fans telling us to cheer up = epic fail season
                            "Josh Smith Re-building the city of Detroit one brick at a time"

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              I wouldn't go as far as calling us contenders, but I think we're better than people think we are.

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