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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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Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

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  • Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

    I normally dont like to pile on, because 90% of the posters on here usually cover everything that i feel about the Pacers and their current coach. That being that Obrien needs to go. But it seems that Indystar people and readers have had it as well.

    My big thing with the current situation is that Obie just micromanages these players to death. Let them loose and let them play their own game. I do admit, in a recent indystar article that it seems like obie has loosened the reins on DC at least. And he is playing PG and Psycho more.

    http://www.indystar.com/article/2011...|text|Sports|s

    No Author mentioned.

    "Fans who take the time to comment on the state of their local professional team are typically negative by nature. It's the talk-radio syndrome and it happens all the time, even with the Indianapolis Colts.
    But when it comes to the slow start this season by the Indiana Pacers, our readers are nearly unanimous on one thing: They think Jim O'Brien is a rotten coach and he has to go.
    The Pacers are 16-21 after an ugly loss to the Chicago Bulls on Friday night and, although they are in the playoff hunt, people didn't expect this team to be below .500 and occasionally look so lost.
    We culled through hundreds of reader comments from the past two weeks and picked a diverse set of topics to show the extent of disdain for O'Brien. Today, we'll let our readers have their say:
    » Disgust: Fifty words to describe what's wrong with the Pacers? I don't need any words. Just three letters -- J.O.B. -- hua
    » Confidence: Is it any wonder (Roy) Hibbert has no confidence, and when (Danny) Granger says the offense sucks he probably means O'Brien's offensive system. The facts are O'Brien has lost this team. -- dklesh
    » Surrender: I purchased partial season tickets following the encouraging trade during the offseason. Midway through, I've quit going to games and will not return until at least a coaching change is made. -- insptsfan
    » Responsibility: If O'Brien is going to continue to be the coach, he needs to be prevented from doing one thing he continues to do: Criticize his players in public through the media. When has he ever taken any responsibility for the state of the Pacers? -- passing1
    » Relationships: O'Brien is the totally wrong coach for this young team. Always putting down his young players in the media. Sets up mismatches for other teams to exploit. Encouraging to throw up 3s is an offense that loses in the NBA. Would his style work in Boston, L.A. or San Antonio? Maybe but that's not his team. -- Stan. H.
    » Offense: JOB has lost the players and the fans because he has no set plan and he has the worst offensive flow in the NBA when it totally takes players out of position for rebounding and driving to the basket. Absolutely the worst in the NBA. No set rotations, no game plan, no belief that the offensive system works, no leadership, etc. -- rolggy
    » Quitting: I can't say I've ever seen a team lay down on a coach before, but I have a funny feeling this is what it would look like. -- cincymark
    » Execution: If the offense is this hard to run, and every year we bring in guys that don't fit it, wouldn't you at some point start to believe that the offense itself and not the players is the problem? Time to send JOB packing. -- the reality
    » Individual improvement: They used to say Bob Knight could take a good player and make him great, but he could also take a great player and make him good. I think JOB can take any player, no matter how good or great, and make him stink. He takes the talent and the intelligence and sucks it right out of them. -- bluefan1
    » Style: O'Brien doesn't adjust offensive schemes to make his players effective. He keeps being stubborn and tries to hammer his system into their heads, despite the fact that it is not working. Being a good coach means being able to get the best out of your players. O'Brien doesn't do that. -- pacersfan4life"

  • #2
    Re: Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

    » Relationships: O'Brien is the totally wrong coach for this young team. Always putting down his young players in the media. Sets up mismatches for other teams to exploit. Encouraging to throw up 3s is an offense that loses in the NBA. Would his style work in Boston, L.A. or San Antonio? Maybe but that's not his team. -- Stan. H.
    This is what I have been saying all along, this style would work on other teams, that he can hand pick his weird players (tony battie, antoine walker, tony delk, erick strickland, rodney rodgers, joe johnson, etc...).
    "Did we learn anything?"-Jonathan Ames

    "No, but thats okay, It's a good thing to stay in the dark about things - it keeps life more interesting."- George Christopher

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

      Its funny I think this is the only city right now that seems to almost unanimously want both coaches gone from the city's major league franchises.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

        Looks like the Indy Star has entered the "Let's get the coach Fierd" business....
        I'm not say'n that this is not a accurate dapiction of the fan's feelings, nor that there isn't some valid points, but cutting & pasteing rants by fans (many likely have no idea about intimate details of the game) is not journalism, IMO...
        This is actually kinda sad - interesting they would do this - but sad.
        "Larry Bird: You are Officially On the Clock! (3/24/08)"
        (Watching You Like A Hawk!)

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

          bet this is mike wells doing. it has his ink stained fingerprints all over it.

          wonder what JOB did to mike? does he owe him money or something? or is it the bobby knight effect? the star guys hated knight for no apparent reason.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

            Originally posted by Basketball Fan View Post
            Its funny I think this is the only city right now that seems to almost unanimously want both coaches gone from the city's major league franchises.
            I honestly don't want Jim Caldwell gone. His timeout call was bad, but we were going to lose that game no matter what in those final seconds cause of special teams. Not sure how that loss was on the coach. I wouldn't mind seeing a new training staff, OC and Special Teams coach.

            JOB should be fired and if it wasn't for the looming lockout, I believe he would have been fired already.
            First time in a long time, I've been happy with the team that was constructed, and now they struggle. I blame the coach.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

              Originally posted by Basketball Fan
              I think this is the only city right now that seems to almost unanimously want both coaches gone...
              I don't get that vibe right now from the general public... I know that you and Shade are beating that drum pretty hard, but I don't get the same venom when I hear Jim Caldwell's name come up to the casual sports fan. J. O'B doesn't get that luxury!
              ...Still "flying casual"
              @roaminggnome74

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

                Originally posted by xIndyFan View Post

                wonder what JOB did to mike?
                He showed secret pictures of horrible basketball.
                "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

                  Caldwell needs to go as well. It wasn't just that timeout? He's been making boneheaded decisions most of the year. I want a motivator in here not a statue.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

                    Originally posted by presto123 View Post
                    Caldwell needs to go as well. It wasn't just that timeout? He's been making boneheaded decisions most of the year. I want a motivator in here not a statue.
                    ya a SB appearnces and 2 division titles he's terrible

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

                      Originally posted by BornReady#6 View Post
                      This is what I have been saying all along, this style would work on other teams, that he can hand pick his weird players (tony battie, antoine walker, tony delk, erick strickland, rodney rodgers, joe johnson, etc...).
                      I don't think Joe Johnson was one of his "weird players" considering they traded him for Rodney Rogers halfway though his only season with the Celtics.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

                        Originally posted by pacer4ever View Post
                        ya a SB appearnces and 2 division titles he's terrible
                        He honestly is. Peyton Manning and Dwight Freeney seriously are that good that they can accomplish that much with a completely incompetent coach. Good coaches don't compile a 26-63 record coaching in college.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

                          Originally posted by Merz View Post
                          He honestly is. Peyton Manning and Dwight Freeney seriously are that good that they can accomplish that much with a completely incompetent coach. Good coaches don't compile a 26-63 record coaching in college.

                          Good post. Yeah....he inherited a job he should have never got in the first place because he was Dungy's friend and a Dungy clone to some extent. Polian loves it as well because he has the head coach on a string. We could have got any coach we wanted when Dungy left and we got stuck with Caldwell. And he is no match for the elite coaches of the NFL. He consistently gets outcoached.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Who's to blame? - Indystar article 01-16-11

                            I think it's pretty obvious that fans are not happy with O'Brien. The Pacers top brass is aware of this, and I believe some of the playing time for Hansbrough and George has come from the top.

                            I think O'Brien is just benefiting from the situation of the CBA next year, and the Pacers already being in financial woes. Lester Conner was moved so there would be not threat to O'Brien, and now the Pacers bench is really full of assistants that should not be a head coach.

                            I feel the Pacers would be smart to pull a Charlotte and trying to bring in a coach to provide a spark to the team to help them make a playoff push, as the team has fallen to the 8th seed with the Bucks... and Bobcats lurking.

                            The fact that nothing has been done, make you wonder why? And that's just it, as fans we don't know why, there may be a logical reason, perhaps Bird is giving O'Brien the benefit of the doubt based off of the circumstances that he took the job under?

                            Perhaps he likes his style of play and truly believes he's the man for the job.

                            Problem is I've seen Bird fire Rick Carlisle, who is actually a really good coach, and good friend of Bird b/c the team needed a change and things weren't working out. I'm hoping Bird doesn't see that as a regret and is trying to use this situation as a learning experience.

                            We should be a playoff team in the East this year, the fact that we likely won't be means someone needs to be held accountable

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