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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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David Benner, long time director of media relations for the Pacers has passed away

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  • David Benner, long time director of media relations for the Pacers has passed away

    We are saddened to announce the passing of our longtime Director of Media Relations, David Benner. “David embodied the very best of our organization. He was immensely talented, experienced, and humble."




    If you are old enough you will remember when David was a reporter for the Indianapolis Star. He and Reggie Miller had a somewhat famous pre-game ritual where David would get Reggie pumped up by trading trash talking.

    Every time I had interacted with him he was always a friendly and talkative fellow who would love to remanence about his time with the star.

    He was a fixture at both MSA and the fieldhouse and he will be missed.


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

  • #2
    https://twitter.com/Pacers/status/16...704192004?s=20

    No words really. Horrible and it seems pretty unexpected.


    Comment


    • #3
      He just retired
      @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

      Comment


      • #4
        Good guy. RIP.
        "Just look at the flowers ........ BANG" - Carol "The Walking Dead"

        Comment


        • #5
          Sad to hear this. Enjoyed his Indy Star reporting
          Danger Zone

          Comment


          • #6
            Condolences to his family and friends.

            Comment


            • #7
              https://twitter.com/Original_Turner/...723943424?s=20

              No matter what you think of Myles as a player, this is a wonderful gesture from Myles the person. Yes that is David Benner from years and years ago on his shirt.



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

              Comment


              • #8
                Gut punch.

                Comment


                • #9
                  https://www.indystar.com/story/sport...es/69959012007

                  Doyel: David Benner, a legend at IndyStar and then the Pacers, dies

                  Gregg Doyel
                  Indianapolis Star
                  View Comments


                  GREENWOOD – David Benner wouldn’t say he was dying. Not his style. And this was a man of style – and substance. He worked for the IndyStar from 1979-1994, worked his way up from copy boy to the biggest beats in sports before shifting gears and working for the Pacers in media relations. An unusual career switch, something only the strongest of souls could do, but that was Benner. One of the strongest souls around.

                  Benner left us on Wednesday morning at age 67, dying of the cancer that had been coming for him for a decade, nibbling around the edges, trying to get close but running into the same wall most of us ran into, eventually: Benner would decide how close you’d get. You, me, cancer … none of us chose. Benner chose.

                  Toward the end, when the cancer stopped nibbling and started taking large bites, Benner knew the decision was no longer his. A proud Southsider, he spent a week in intensive care at St. Francis Hospital before moving into the nearby Franciscan Hospice House. That was three weeks ago.

                  By then he’d done the chemo, over and over, and he’d come to grips with what was happening to him, and what would be happening to him soon enough. He’d been going to Columbus for chemotherapy, where he’d seen people much younger battling the same disease.

                  “He felt bad for them,” says Mike Wells, who covered the Pacers for the IndyStar from 2005-13, becoming close with Benner then, and becoming even much closer after Wells left the Pacers beat to cover the Colts for ESPN. “He told me, ‘I’ve lived a hell of a life. I’ve traveled the world and had an incredible life.’ He felt bad for the 20-somethings who hadn’t had the chance to do that.”

                  David Benner had a heart, but he kept that part of himself under wraps as best he could, unless you were on the inner circle. Very few people got inside there. Lucky me, he let me inside about six months ago before putting up the wall again. He was dying, see, but that was his story. And he wasn’t going to open his book for just anyone.


                  A curmudgeon's curmudgeon, David Benner


                  Benner had things he enjoyed. That will come as a surprise to those who knew him just a very little bit, and here I’m referring mainly to the media members he kept at arm’s distance – like me, until six months ago – because to us, this is the only thing he seemed to enjoy:

                  Keeping us at arm’s length.

                  He was protective of his team, David Benner. He grew up on the Pacers, cheering for them from his home in Center Grove, going to the occasional game, and then crossing over into this strange world of writing for the local paper about the team of your childhood. He wrote about the Pacers for the IndyStar – same job Mike Wells would have, years later – from 1983-91, then covered Notre Dame football in the fall and IU basketball in the winter. That was his work life until 1994, when Pacers media director Dale Ratermann left that role and the franchise offered the job to Benner.

                  For the next 28 years he protected the Pacers like it was his job, because it was.

                  Former Pacers coach Frank Vogel was texting with me Wednesday, after the news broke of Benner’s death, and wrote: “He could not have been more supportive of me as a young, first-time head coach. He always kept me laughing with his quick wit … and I leaned on his experience with the media and with the organization heavily.

                  “He was a dear friend and a Pacers icon!”

                  Benner was a wall, stiff and unyielding in his fitted suits. Write something he deemed unfair, and he’d let you know. Ask to speak with someone for an interview he felt was unnecessary, he’d let you know. Understand, I’m not complaining. Not now. Back when I first got here in 2014? It’s possible I complained to people at the Star.

                  What’s up with Benner?

                  That’s just Benner, they’d say. And it was. But there was so much more there, if you were lucky enough to get past the exterior. “A curmudgeon’s curmudgeon,” I called him in January 2020, when I wrote a story about attending five games in five gyms in five days, choosing a single anecdote from each arena. The anecdote I chose from the Pacers game? David Benner.

                  He was in the middle of another cancer fight, and I’d seen something pretty remarkable – well, actually, I’d not seen it – a few weeks earlier when I’d been at a Pacers game and Benner was there, same ol’ Benner: curmudgeonly. And then he was gone, leaving the arena before the game started. Nobody said why. I didn’t know. Turns out, he’d undergone chemo earlier that day. Didn’t tell anyone. Well, he didn’t tell me. I was on the outside.

                  The anecdote I wrote about Benner in 2020, it showed him a different side of me. Hey, he’s not the only person who can put up a wall. To me he was Benner, writer-turned-PR guy, and that’s how I treated him: Respectful, but keeping him at the same arm’s length he kept me. His arms are a little longer, probably.

                  But he saw that story, saw in the words I wrote how much I really liked him – something I’d never told him, because he’s Benner, and you don’t tell Benner that – and that’s how I broke through. All the way inside? No, wouldn’t say that. But every time I came back for a Pacers game, Benner and I were different, better, warmer.


                  He retired in April 2022, choosing to spend more time enjoying the things he enjoyed. Turns out, he enjoyed the Dave Matthews Band. And NASCAR. His dog Baxter. The golf at Hickory Stick in Greenwood; he could see the fourth hole from his house. And the coffee at Strange Brew on Smith Valley Road.

                  At some point he sent me a text message, wanting to get together. I still have it. It’s dated Nov. 10, 2022:

                  Sir: now I’m retired, plenty of time on my hands, unlike yourself recently. Want to know if you would like to have lunch sometime. No intent, just good conversation. At least from your end.

                  Imagine getting that note from David Benner. And imagine seeing the way he signed off: With a smiling emoji.

                  I'm not crying, you are

                  Benner liked the Cherry Limeade from Sonic. Mike Wells brought him one last week. Benner was about to start his third week in hospice, so obviously the end was coming, but Wells had an idea just how close it was when he saw Benner take two sips and put down his favorite drink.

                  Wells had another inkling when he left his friend for the final time, and Benner gave him a fist bump and told him, for the first time, “I love you.”

                  I’m not crying. You are.

                  Benner hated that I’d do that, by the way. He didn’t like the way I’d put words like “I” and “me” in my stories. He was an old-school journalist, and in the 1970s and 80s, you didn’t write in the first person. Things have changed over the years, as social media has broken down what wall existed between journalists and readers. We’re all in this together, is my feeling, so I’ll chat with you directly, and take you with me to show you the sights.

                  Benner wasn’t crazy about it, and I’m not sure how to feel about this, but apparently he and Wells discussed me, for a moment, during one of Wells’ near-daily visits to hospice.

                  “You know,” Benner told Wells, “I’m not a big proponent of the ‘I’ and ‘me’ in his columns, but Gregg away from his columns is a guy I like a lot.”

                  I’m not crying harder. You are.

                  Benner and I had coffee on Nov. 14, by the way. He knew I lived near the Greenwood Mall, so he suggested The Mocha Nut Coffee Shop near Southport and Madison. He said we’d go to his home turf next time, to Strange Brew on Smith Valley, but it never happened. And I tried. Well, a little.

                  For weeks after that coffee he’d send me the occasional note, saying hello or asking about my recently adopted dog. On Jan. 4 I sent him something blunt, because Benner liked it blunt:

                  We eating lunch tomorrow?

                  He said no. Suggested we try in a couple weeks. Said his hip was bothering him, that he was using a cane, that the pain killer wasn’t doing much. I said to him, and I quote because these are the last words I ever wrote David Benner:

                  I’m sure you have lots of people who want to get together with you, but I’ll pester you again here in a few weeks.

                  That was Jan. 5. Seven weeks ago. Never did pester him again. Think that hurts?

                  Along the way, I’m learning now, he was in the ICU for a week, then in hospice for three weeks, and then came Wednesday morning and a text from Mike Wells, telling me David Benner was gone. So I’m calling Wells, wanting to know more – for me, and for this story – and he’s telling me about their final get-together before Benner went into ICU.

                  They met at Strange Brew. It was Jan. 6, one day after Benner had kept me at arm’s length, telling me he needed a few weeks. He was dying, see, and he wasn’t going to share that with me. Only a few people were inside that circle, and that included Wells. They’d bonded back in 2010 when Wells’ mother was dying – from cancer – and Benner was being supportive, reaching out, checking on Wells not as a beat writer, but as a friend.

                  Benner and Wells became ever closer over the years, and in recent months, when the weather cooperated, Benner would ride along in the golf cart as Wells played Hickory Stick. Sometimes Benner would join him on the green to putt, if he was feeling up to it. But on Jan. 6 in the parking lot of Strange Brew, Benner did something he’d never do: He asked Wells to help him into the car.

                  Wells picked up Benner’s legs and slid them into the driver’s seat, and begged him: Let me drive you.

                  “Nope,” Benner told him, “I want to drive myself. I want to enjoy life.”

                  To me, Wells says: “I think he knew.”

                  One thing Benner doesn’t know, will never know: From a distance, Mike Wells followed him in his car Jan. 6. Just to make sure he got home OK.

                  Benner’s home now.

                  Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar or at www.facebook.com/greggdoyelstar.
                  BillS

                  A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
                  Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    What a fixture of the franchise this man was and is. Hopefully the Pacers will do something to honor his memory.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Sadly I never met him, my life is worse for this. Great person! RIP
                      Go Pacers!

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Sadness at his passing. May God comfort his family
                        {o,o}
                        |)__)
                        -"-"-

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Wow is there a cause of death?

                          May he RIP

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Basketball Fan View Post
                            Wow is there a cause of death?

                            May he RIP
                            Cancer.

                            **** cancer.

                            Sent from my SM-G988U 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...

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Basketball Fan View Post
                              Wow is there a cause of death?

                              May he RIP
                              Cancer
                              "We've got to be very clear about this. We don't want our players hanging around with murderers," said Larry Bird, Pacers president.

                              Comment

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