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The Rules of Pacers Digest

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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.

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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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Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

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  • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

    are they going to do what they did to tinsley and make him stay away from the team?
    Keep believing...

    Comment


    • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

      http://www.indystar.com/article/2011...ns-place-bench


      Stephenson, who didn't say what caused his demotion, knows he only has himself to blame and must grow out of his label as an offensively talented but immature person.

      "I'm not perfect," Stephenson said. "Once the mistakes happen, I have to learn from them. I have to work hard and show everybody I'm learning and getting back on the floor."

      The Pacers feel Stephenson's on-the-court talent will overshadow his immaturity down the road. That's why they took a risk in giving him a two-year guaranteed contract with a team option the third and fourth years.

      But Stephenson, who would only be a sophomore in college, has been testing the patience of many in the organization with his standoffish attitude. He has had run-ins with several teammates.

      "It's a negative light and I'll learn from it," Stephenson said. "I'm not going to let anybody bring me down. I'm going to work hard regardless."

      The Pacers didn't allow Stephenson to work out for a period of time at the fieldhouse and had him get counseling after he was accused of pushing his girlfriend down some stairs in New York last summer. The case was dismissed.

      Stephenson's latest mishap was extreme enough for the Pacers to move Ford in front him. The Pacers tried to trade Ford and then buy out the remaining part of his $8.5 million contract in February. Ford hasn't traveled with the team for more than a month.

      "We want to hold guys accountable," Vogel said of Stephenson. "We have a standard of professionalism here that whether you're a rookie or a veteran player that you carry yourself like a true pro, like a winner, and contribute to positive chemistry on this basketball team. That's what we're asking of all of our guys."

      Stephenson will make $810,000 next season, but the Pacers could release him and swallow his contract.

      "I tried to tell him to just take advantage of the opportunity presented to you, because every year there are 60 new guys coming in ready to take your spot, and you don't want to be on the outside looking in," center Roy Hibbert said.
      So:

      1) The Pacers STILL think he's worth all of this. Bird's (and Morway's) stock drops again with me.

      2) He has a 'standoffish attitude.'

      3) He's had run-ins with 'several teammates.'

      4) I think it's significant that Frank Vogel cites 'contributing to positive chemistry on the team' as part of his comments on Lance.

      Comment


      • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

        I've heard enough about his on the court talent. If he actually had any on the court talent, he would actually be on the court.

        Dahntay Jones has had this kid pegged right from day 1.

        "I'm the best high school player ever from New York."

        "Not as a second round pick you aren't"

        People are too caught up in what Lance was or what Lance was supposed to be, they completely ignore what Lance IS.

        I think Lance is a punk who if I had to guess talks mad **** about how good he is. Well sorry buddy, I don't buy it. Odds say you suck balls and that it isn't going to change. Dude can barely sniff the court and we still have to hear about his "talent". Giving me a ****ing break, let's stop making excuses for a guy who hasn't done anything. The fact he ended up at Cincinatti at college should tell you something.
        Last edited by Trader Joe; 04-11-2011, 11:32 AM.


        Comment


        • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

          Originally posted by Hicks View Post
          Jack being hot headed and TJ being cool does not mean TJ was right. In fact, after that happened, I believe Jack became the starter.

          Not that I consider that to be the sign of a leader, either.

          I thought he was considered a leader while he was here by the players, but I don't recall where I got the impression from. I know it wasn't because he yelled at TJ, though at the time I think I was happy that he did.
          I'm just saying that up until this year Jarret Jack was 4th on the games played without reaching the playoffs list (Behind Murphy, Dunleavy, and Chris Wilcox). Yet he was considered a leader. What were we basing this off? What had he ever lead anyone to?


          Comment


          • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

            Originally posted by pacer4ever View Post
            Thats why I love watching Drose play one of his best traits confidece/ cockiness
            Rose also has another C...control. And if you aren't in control of your actions and thoughts, your confidence and cockiness are useless.


            Comment


            • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

              Originally posted by Trader Joe View Post
              I've heard enough about his on the court talent. If he actually had any on the court talent, he would actually be on the court.

              Dahntay Jones has had this kid pegged right from day 1.

              "I'm the best high school player ever from New York."

              "Not as a second round pick you aren't"

              People are too caught up in what Lance was or what Lance was supposed to be, they completely ignore what Lance IS.

              I think Lance is a punk who if I had to guess talks mad **** about how good he is. Well sorry buddy, I don't buy it. Odds say you suck balls and that it isn't going to change. Dude can barely sniff the court and we still have to hear about his "talent". Giving me a ****ing break, let's stop making excuses for a guy who hasn't done anything. The fact he ended up at Cincinatti at college should tell you something.
              I'm glad somebody finally said it.

              Comment


              • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

                Lance is going to be fine. I hope he learns from this and moves on. It is a bad situation for the organization b/c they had just clinched the playoffs and now this happens. He does have a "new york" attitude, but hasn't done much in the league. Swagger/Cockiness are commonplace in pro sports so I have no problem with Lance. He just needs to produce.

                Lance is every reason "old school" consertative types hate the NBA. Lance is able to act unproffesional, but since he has a world class talent and a guarnteed contract he will get paid regardless. If he worked at UPS he would be in the unemployment line.

                Comment


                • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

                  Originally posted by Trader Joe View Post
                  I'm just saying that up until this year Jarret Jack was 4th on the games played without reaching the playoffs list (Behind Murphy, Dunleavy, and Chris Wilcox). Yet he was considered a leader. What were we basing this off? What had he ever lead anyone to?
                  Illogical to equate leadership with winning %. It's simply another positive attribute. You have to have a lot of positive attributes, as a player and as a team, to win.

                  Comment


                  • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

                    I at people assuming that he's not playing because he's incapable of playing. This is blatantly about other issues he has.

                    Anyone with eyes can see why Boyle, Bird, et al have said he's very talented, but it doesn't matter because this isn't about what his basketball skills are, or how raw he is, or what his skill-related weaknesses are, etc. It's not about that.

                    Comment


                    • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

                      Nobody here knows exactly what he has done, yet all are willing to comment

                      If Lance truly was the reason behind the blowup in Houston

                      Then good, the team got closer because of it and has played better ball

                      One thing that really I dont understand is the need to publish that Stephenson had an internal issue

                      Why do we continue to air our dirty laundry?
                      What happened to keeping things in house?

                      Considering the way they did TJ Ford, and how they consistently call out their own players in the media is fukin retarted

                      Bird/Morway are ruining a once proud orginization, that used to treat our players with respect, and kept them form public whippings

                      I miss the 90's Pacers
                      Sittin on top of the world!

                      Comment


                      • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

                        So now Lance gets the credit for giving the other 14 players a common enemy to rally against? SERIOUSLY? Wow.

                        Comment


                        • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

                          As I've mentioned before, the Pacers had supposedly stepped up their psych evaluations of players they bring in before the draft to avoid signing another Tinsley or Artest. However, it looks as though Lucy Van Pelt is conducting these evaluations, rigorous as they are, as evidenced by Lance's latest escapades. The doctor is in!

                          Comment


                          • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

                            Let's just make him the starting point guard since most of us either

                            A.) Buy into the fact that he is extremely talented.

                            or

                            B.) Don't want to hold him accountable for his actions.


                            Comment


                            • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

                              Originally posted by 90'sNBARocked View Post
                              Nobody here knows exactly what he has done, yet all are willing to comment

                              If Lance truly was the reason behind the blowup in Houston

                              Then good, the team got closer because of it and has played better ball




                              Comment


                              • Re: Mike Wells: Lance done for season, violating team rules

                                I'd be for cutting him the day the season is over, honestly. Does anyone think he can make it through an offseason without an incident? I'd put it at 90% probable he does something ranging from embarrassingly stupid to criminal.

                                I also wouldn't be surprised if he eventually makes it in the league and is pretty good, someday. It just won't be here and it won't be for a long while.

                                Really 800k and a 2nd round pick isn't worth all the drain on the franchise he's going to cause, it just isn't worth it.

                                If they cut him and he turns out to be an allstar in 5 years, I wouldn't look back and feel bad about the Pacers doing the right thing. Some would, I'm sure, I wouldn't.

                                This franchise doesn't need Lance Stephenson, nearly as much as he thinks they do.

                                He'll likely need to learn the hard way, if at all. Cut him.

                                Comment

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