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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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THE TANK IS BACK.

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  • Originally posted by LongTimePacerFan View Post

    Uhh. 16 teams are going to make the playoffs. 20 will be in, if you include the play in tournament. So, ummm... yes.
    If Lakers had a healthy Lebron/AD all year they are contenders, if Golden State got a healthy Curry/Wiggins they are contenders, if Chicago has a healthy Ball they are playoff contenders, if the Hornets got a healthy Ball/Hayward/Oubre they are playoffs contenders, if 20 other teams don't have any injuries they are playoffs contenders.


    Acting like Pacers are the only team that had somebody injured reason why they are so "scary" is delusional at best.
    @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

    Comment


    • Originally posted by Dece View Post
      There are lots of different ways to measure team health for a season. One simple way is just games lost to injury, period. By that metric the Pacers are the 14th healthiest team with 131 total games lost to injury. This is a little simplistic, because losing your top guy is obviously more impactful than losing your 8th guy. One way to try to do some normalization is to look at how much salary was paid to injured players. By that metric the Pacers were the 4th healthiest team, paying $12,671,135 to players unable to play in games.

      In my view, the Pacers were at worst average in the injuries department, and more realistically they were considerably above average in injury luck this season. A real rare treat for the Pacers in recent history.

      I don't think it's reasonable to claim this team would be better if only they were healthier. It isn't likely to be much healthier than they have been. This isn't 2k, you can't turn injuries off, every team has them. Editing in a source here if anyone was curious: https://www.spotrac.com/nba/injured-...mulative-team/
      People are also celebrating the Pacers record with Hali while ignoring all the injured players on the other teams.


      Pacers won a lot of games because they were the healthiest team for a while.
      @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

      Comment


      • Originally posted by Dece View Post
        There are lots of different ways to measure team health for a season. One simple way is just games lost to injury, period. By that metric the Pacers are the 14th healthiest team with 131 total games lost to injury. This is a little simplistic, because losing your top guy is obviously more impactful than losing your 8th guy. One way to try to do some normalization is to look at how much salary was paid to injured players. By that metric the Pacers were the 4th healthiest team, paying $12,671,135 to players unable to play in games.

        In my view, the Pacers were at worst average in the injuries department, and more realistically they were considerably above average in injury luck this season. A real rare treat for the Pacers in recent history.

        I don't think it's reasonable to claim this team would be better if only they were healthier. It isn't likely to be much healthier than they have been. This isn't 2k, you can't turn injuries off, every team has them. Editing in a source here if anyone was curious: https://www.spotrac.com/nba/injured-...mulative-team/
        Duuude. I just can't. They lost Haliburton for a stretch and went like 1-11. I don't care if Myles Turner and TJ McConnell have been mostly healthy. I'm talking specifically about when Hali is right.

        With Haliburton, this is an over .500 team. The end.

        Comment


        • Originally posted by vnzla81 View Post

          If Lakers had a healthy Lebron/AD all year they are contenders, if Golden State got a healthy Curry/Wiggins they are contenders, if Chicago has a healthy Ball they are playoff contenders, if the Hornets got a healthy Ball/Hayward/Oubre they are playoffs contenders, if 20 other teams don't have any injuries they are playoffs contenders.


          Acting like Pacers are the only team that had somebody injured reason why they are so "scary" is delusional at best.
          WHO are you arguing against? What is happening here?

          Yes, healthy Lakers, Bulls, and Hornets teams would have won more games. And....

          WTF does that have to do with anything. None of those teams are even any healthier now.

          My point is that the Pacers are an above .500 team when healthy. They are currently healthy. Therefore, the expectation should be that they should finish the season near or above .500.

          You responded by saying nuh uh, because other teams have injuries right now. Checkmate.

          This is a real exchange that just occurred.

          Comment


          • Originally posted by Dece View Post
            There are lots of different ways to measure team health for a season. One simple way is just games lost to injury, period. By that metric the Pacers are the 14th healthiest team with 131 total games lost to injury. This is a little simplistic, because losing your top guy is obviously more impactful than losing your 8th guy. One way to try to do some normalization is to look at how much salary was paid to injured players. By that metric the Pacers were the 4th healthiest team, paying $12,671,135 to players unable to play in games.

            In my view, the Pacers were at worst average in the injuries department, and more realistically they were considerably above average in injury luck this season. A real rare treat for the Pacers in recent history.

            I don't think it's reasonable to claim this team would be better if only they were healthier. It isn't likely to be much healthier than they have been. This isn't 2k, you can't turn injuries off, every team has them. Editing in a source here if anyone was curious: https://www.spotrac.com/nba/injured-...mulative-team/
            I think you and V are arguing against people who are not in this thread. LongTime is not saying the Pacers were unlucky with injuries this year. He's not even saying the Pacers should have been a .500 team this year. All he's saying is that they are healthy now, so looking at their record when healthy is a better gauge of how to project the last 19 games. I bet he would even say his prediction is only accurate if Haliburton doesn't miss more time.

            P.S. The salary indicator is a particularly bad metric to use for the Pacers who are near the bottom in total salary and their best player by far makes pennies. Not saying it's wrong with how it ranks the Pacers (I'd have to do the legwork on a better metric to know) but it's a particularly irrelevant one to use for this team.

            Comment


            • I am arguing that his view point is only 1 level deep and the world is more complicated than 1 level. The Pacers are a .500 team when healthy AGAINST WHO? This isn't a one variable scenario, they aren't scrimmaging themselves. Against who, is the bare minimum second factor. Unhealthy teams? Are the Pacers when healthy favored against the Bucks when unhealthy? It's just a really overly simplistic thing that amounts to nothing.

              In regards to your PS you're welcome to go find your own metric, I clearly didn't create spotrac, but I provided two reasonable statistics and both suggest the Pacers have been on the average health or better side of the league. I don't find it to be valuable discourse to say well I don't like that and then not provide an alternative.

              Comment


              • Originally posted by LongTimePacerFan View Post

                WHO are you arguing against? What is happening here?

                Yes, healthy Lakers, Bulls, and Hornets teams would have won more games. And....

                WTF does that have to do with anything. None of those teams are even any healthier now.

                My point is that the Pacers are an above .500 team when healthy. They are currently healthy. Therefore, the expectation should be that they should finish the season near or above .500.

                You responded by saying nuh uh, because other teams have injuries right now. Checkmate.

                This is a real exchange that just occurred.
                "Pacers are an above .500 when healthy", how many of the teams they played were not healthy?

                We both can play this game.
                @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

                Comment


                • Originally posted by Dece View Post
                  I am arguing that his view point is only 1 level deep and the world is more complicated than 1 level. The Pacers are a .500 team when healthy AGAINST WHO? This isn't a one variable scenario, they aren't scrimmaging themselves. Against who, is the bare minimum second factor. Unhealthy teams? Are the Pacers when healthy favored against the Bucks when unhealthy? It's just a really overly simplistic thing that amounts to nothing.

                  In regards to your PS you're welcome to go find your own metric, I clearly didn't create spotrac, but I provided two reasonable statistics and both suggest the Pacers have been on the average health or better side of the league. I don't find it to be valuable discourse to say well I don't like that and then not provide an alternative.
                  In regards to your first paragraph, that would be highly valuable if you were talking about a small sample size or were trying to compare the Pacers to another team. But when you are talking about over half a season sample size, the easy answer is they faced a broad cross section of the league during those games, some healthy and some not. And in the last 19 games they are going to face a broad cross section of the league, some healthy and some not. There shouldn't be a super meaningful difference.

                  There's a big difference from saying the Pacers should be an above .500 team for the season, and the Pacers play like an above .500 team when healthy so I expect them to play that way while they are healthy now. Those are two completely different things.

                  As for your last point, unfortunately a metric that would make the most sense isn't publicly available. I have zero issue with your first metric as crude as it is. And I honestly like the second metric overall. It's just that trying to use something that only decently correlates with winning (salary) is going to make some outliers. And as I pointed out, there are reasons why the Pacers would be an obvious outlier. But as I said, that doesn't mean I think either of those are wrong. Without a better metric, the best I can say is I don't know, other than the Pacers have felt reasonably healthy this year.

                  Comment


                  • I won't belabor this much further but I guess I'll leave it with, I don't think it's as simple as they played a broad section of teams during that sample, or as simple as they have a broad section of teams left. There are several things impacting that. The schedule is somewhat geographic in nature, west coast trip, etc, as well as teams aren't playing the same in November as they are in March. The rosters change with the trade deadline and good teams get better as the season goes on.

                    In the remaining games there's the Knicks twice, the Pistons 3 times, Philly twice, Milwaukee twice -- it's very East-centric, outside 3 games in Texas and one in OKC.

                    Only semi on topic maybe I should write a script to see each team's record without their top player or two, and another one for each team's record vs teams without their top player or two. This discussion has made me curious.

                    Comment


                    • Ultimately I think one the best metrics is your record
                      You pretty much are what your record says you are
                      So right now the Pacers are not a playin team
                      {o,o}
                      |)__)
                      -"-"-

                      Comment


                      • Originally posted by LongTimePacerFan View Post

                        WHO are you arguing against? What is happening here?

                        Yes, healthy Lakers, Bulls, and Hornets teams would have won more games. And....

                        WTF does that have to do with anything. None of those teams are even any healthier now.

                        My point is that the Pacers are an above .500 team when healthy. They are currently healthy. Therefore, the expectation should be that they should finish the season near or above .500.

                        You responded by saying nuh uh, because other teams have injuries right now. Checkmate.

                        This is a real exchange that just occurred.
                        Hey, I get it. You are not losing your mind, your point makes perfect sense.

                        Comment


                        • Haliburton said in his postgame comments that making the playoffs is important to both he and the team.

                          Comment


                          • Originally posted by kent beckley View Post
                            Haliburton said in his postgame comments that making the playoffs is important to both he and the team.
                            Play in is not playoffs even if you want to celebrate that.
                            @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

                            Comment


                            • Anyways today we are rooting for Chicago, Miami, Orlando and NY
                              Last edited by vnzla81; 03-01-2023, 07:49 PM.
                              @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

                              Comment


                              • Originally posted by vnzla81 View Post

                                Play in is not playoffs even if you want to celebrate that.
                                Some people think cucumbers taste better pickled.

                                Comment

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