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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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Patrolling the Paint ? Inside the squared circle [The Front Page]

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  • #1

    Patrolling the Paint ? Inside the squared circle [The Front Page]

    Patrolling the Paint ? Inside the squared circle
    Written by Peck

    Link

    In our never ending quest to provide you, the readers of Pacers Digest (best basketball site on the internet), informative and entertaining items to peruse, the staff at the “Patrolling the Paint” blog sends our talent scouts out to scour the globe in search of interesting characters and powerful people. Often times our searches force us to scale the highest mountains or cross the scorching desert but it is always our pleasure because of the people we can bring to you.

    Fortunately in this case, our search did not require far travels and who more powerful or more colorful of character can we bring to you than our very own Pacer Icon.

    (Please read the following aloud no matter when you read it or where you are at and do so in a loud Michael Buffer like voice)

    Proudly wearing the blue and the gold, hailing from Indianapolis with a legendary career in Mexico City – the Masked Pacers Fan, the Crazy Guy, and the man you must never refer to as Rey Mysterio or La Pacera – the self-proclaimed Number One Pacers Fan and The Undefeated and Undisputed Women’s Wrestling Champion of the World! Show your love for the one… the only… EL PACERO!!!!!!

    El Pacero was gracious enough to sit down and reply to a series of grueling questions put forth to him from the board of directors of “Patrolling the Paint”.

    1. All luchadores have a story about their masks origin, what is yours?

    My original mask was handed down to me from my Padre. I am proud to continue the family wrestling tradition, but I do it a little differently than he did. After watching my career over the years, the old man finally admits I’m the smart one.

    2. How important in your life was professional wrestling in your youth?

    I never understood wrestling in school. I still don’t understand popular wrestling in general. Why two sweaty men would want to roll around with each other is beyond me.

    3. Who did you admire the most in the ring and what qualities did you see in them?

    It’s really tough to name just one wrestler, one quality, or one favorite move. Growing up I liked a lot of the funny and famous WWF classics including George “The Animal” Steele, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, “Leaping” Lenny Poffo, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat and of course the Hulkster. There are too many great Luchadores to name, but you cannot mention the lucha profession and not drop El Santo’s name. In the late 80′s, I found G.L.O.W. – the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling on late night TV. I blame Sally the Farmer’s Daughter for putting those thoughts into my head and turning me on to my women wrestling ways.

    4. Which do you prefer; a Steel Cage or Ladder Match?

    The steel cage ensures my lovely opponent cannot run out of the ring, which has happened many times, so that’s an easy one.

    5. When did you start drumming?

    I’ve been playing the drums for over 20 years. I actually majored in music at Ball State before I realized I didn’t want to be a high school band teacher, and then fled the country out of “marching band director fear” to pursue my true lifelong dream of being a famous lady wrestling luchador.

    6. Do you have drummers who influenced you?

    Alex Acuña, John Bonham, Dennis Chambers, Vinnie Colaiuta, Neil Peart and Tony Williams to name a few. I would wrestle Sheila E. in a drumbeat.

    7. What type of music does your band play?

    Over the years I’ve played with members of the Frank Zappa band, David Letterman band and even George Clinton himself. I’ve been in a rock cover band for the past few years, but last season I found myself setting up my drums before games and leaving quickly after the game to play the gig, so I recently quit to focus more of my time on the Pacers. I also have a Mariachi (band) that occasionally plays out. One of my goals this season is to sneak my new two-piece rock band into the Fieldhouse hallways to jam out before a game. We are currently rehearsing my soon-to-be released theme song.

    8. Away from the ring and the fieldhouse and the stage, what does El Pacero like to do for relaxation?

    Oh the usual… watch old Pacers games, mostly lurk on Pacers Digest, tweet with fellow Pacers fans and try to find women to wrestle.

    9. How long have you been a Pacers fan?

    Ever since I can remember. The earliest memory I have of going to a game was when I was in my very first youth basketball team and our coach was some kind of doctor for the Pacers. He bought us all tickets, hot dogs and cokes – good times in Market Square. I remember someone got hurt so he had to leave to go attend to the player… I was jealous.

    10. Do you prefer a long distance three point shot or a rim rocking dunk?

    As a Pacers fan, you have to love the three, but lately the monster McDunks from J-Mac have been lighting my Pacers fire.

    11. Who is your favorite Pacer of all time?

    Easy – Reggie Miller. We’ll see over time, but Roy Hibbert’s recent antics are beginning to make him a possible contender.

    12. How tough is it to chant, scream, dance and be “on” all of the time in Area 55?

    Wow, it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be. I was always really pumped at the 45 games I went to last season, but this is a completely different level of craziness. I know a lot of our voices were gone the first couple of weeks, but we have seemed too built up some endurance. The toughest part is being drenched with sweat from mask to boot, screaming your little Pacers heart out, and then looking around and seeing other fans (and sometimes even some members) just sitting there… and you’re not sure if all of your hard work even made a tiny bit of a difference. I also watch the game when I get back to the casa to catch things missed while distracted in the all the craziness. Looking at the big picture, it’s all totally worth it and then some to try and support Roy and the Pacers.

    13. Will we see the cape anytime soon again this season?

    Sí! You’ll see the lucha cape on special occasions… so be on the lookout during muy important games or events in the future. It’s a pretty big cape, but only took one single season to get made.

    14. Has bringing the drum made a difference the past few games?

    It has brought my love of the Pacers and drumming together as one. Oh yeah, it’s also seemed to help to motivate Area 55 members to chant or keep chanting. (And it’s pretty fun during our Roy / Rocky theme chant.)

    15. What message do you want to leave your fans with?

    I don’t want to know how many hours I have spent on the Pacers in my lifetime, but the last couple of years it has definitely increased and in a good way. With Pacers Digest, Twitter, Facebook, and meeting fans at the Fieldhouse – it is so much more fun going to games and hanging out with other Pacers fans before, during and after the game. I would encourage all Pacers fans to get on board, go to games and meet your fellow fans – we have a lot of fun together.

    The staff of “Patrolling the Paint” would like to thank El Pacero for taking the time to answer our questions and encourage all of you to follow our masked hero on twitter @ElPacero, facebook.com/#!/ElPacero or visit his website of www.elpacero.com



    *beeps*
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Patrolling the Paint ? Inside the squared circle [The Front Page]

    The drumming sounds great....I was impressed by whoever was playing the offbeat rhythms. Now it makes sense.

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: Patrolling the Paint ? Inside the squared circle [The Front Page]

      I apologize to everyone for the format. I am still getting used to word press and obviously moving things from words by Microsoft over does not translate the same. The questions should have been in bold and the answers in italic’s. Also for some reason when it was moved to the main page it inserted a question mark into the title which I did not put in the posting.

      I am discussing this with the quality control officer of our blog to ensure that this does not occur in the future.


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

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