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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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Off season Rumors and Speculation

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  • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

    Originally posted by Speed View Post
    Any confirmation on Barbosa?
    Been wondering that too

    Comment


    • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

      Originally posted by Slick Pinkham View Post
      On the Lin situation,

      Personally I think these "poison pill" type contracts are not in the best interests of the game, if they call for the matching team to pay a different amount or different payment schedule than would the offering team.
      I agree. Technically, it's not the payment schedule that's at issue, it's the effect on the cap. The way the rules are written, the cap hit on Houston would be the whole contract evenly divided by 3, while on NY it is 5-5-15. Ironically, this provision is supposed to help teams keep their FA, but the combination of balloon payment on year 3 and severe luxury tax is quite the deterrent effect on NY (and to a lesser extent, Chicago on Asik's contract). I think the rules should be tweaked so that 5-5-15 cap hit applies to both teams. If Houston is willing to live with the balloon payment then more power to them. But as it is, I think the offering team gets an unfair advantage in this sort of situation.

      Comment


      • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

        Originally posted by Hypnotiq View Post
        I think we are 100 Percent finished id be very surprised if Donnie and KP add anyone.
        We're at 13 players right now assuming Orlando makes the team. Still have room for a minimum type player or 2.

        Wouldn't be a bad idea to pick up a project player for the 14th spot, and maybe save the 15th spot for veteran help in case of injury.

        Comment


        • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

          Martell Webster is still young (25) and apparently only seeking a vet min deal. He'd be a nice risk, if Barbosa is moving on. He may be wanting more PT than 11th man, though
          The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

          Comment


          • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

            Originally posted by wintermute View Post
            I agree. Technically, it's not the payment schedule that's at issue, it's the effect on the cap. The way the rules are written, the cap hit on Houston would be the whole contract evenly divided by 3, while on NY it is 5-5-15. Ironically, this provision is supposed to help teams keep their FA, but the combination of balloon payment on year 3 and severe luxury tax is quite the deterrent effect on NY (and to a lesser extent, Chicago on Asik's contract). I think the rules should be tweaked so that 5-5-15 cap hit applies to both teams. If Houston is willing to live with the balloon payment then more power to them. But as it is, I think the offering team gets an unfair advantage in this sort of situation.
            I disagree. Those cap hits really only affect teams well over the salary cap and larger markets already have a salary advantage IMO. IF smaller markets want to use their salary cap to pouch players from larger markets I am all for it because I see larger markets having a bigger advantage in other ways.

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            • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

              Originally posted by Gamble1 View Post
              I disagree. Those cap hits really affect only teams well over the salary cap and larger markets already have a salary advantage IMO. IF smaller markets want to use their salary cap to pouch players from larger markets I am all for it because I see larger markets having a bigger advantage in other ways.
              Its only chance that big market teams NY and Chicago are holding on to Lin and Asik this time around. Imagine if we sign Orlando Johnson to a 2 year deal, and he breaks out in a big way during his second year. Let's say a team like NY or LA then presents a 5-5-15 offer to him (both teams will have cleared their massive contracts by then, so it's conceivable that they'd be far enough under the cap to do this). The Pacers are even more sensitive to luxury tax than big market teams are; there's no chance in hell they would match that offer.

              To summarize my position, I'm in favor of any provision that helps a team keep its own FA, as I believe that this gives small market teams the best chance to retain talent. Sure, this will help big market teams keep their talent too, but in the long run I think it helps small market teams more (or more accurately, it hurts small market teams less than the alternative). A small market team's best chance at talent is to draft or develop it. A big market team also has the option to buy it. Therefore, limiting options to buy talent would, on balance, hurt big market teams more.

              I'm not really sure luxury taxes have the desired leveling effect either. Just consider a team like OKC - through luck and good scouting, they've built a team with 4 players who are currently or soon will be making the max or near max. What a farce it would be when small market OKC ends up having to dismantle their team because of crippling luxury taxes meant to punish big markets.

              Comment


              • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

                Originally posted by Slick Pinkham View Post
                NFL contracts a few years ago were riddled with "poison pill clauses" that were subsequently outlawed.

                For example, let's say the Dolphins were trying to sign a free agent from the Bears and wanted to pay him 4 years / 20 million dollars. Their contract offer would specify the salary, and then a poison pill clause would call for something like "a 10 million dollar bonus if the player participates in at least 5 NFL games played in the state of Illinois during any season".

                This would make the Bears have to pay 30 million bucks to keep a player offered only 20 million bucks by the Dolphins, who would never play that many games in Illinois.
                I see. That's a miserable fail by the NFL lawyers.

                Well, that kind of clause wouldn't be allowed in the NBA.
                For an incentive not to count towards the cap in the NBA, it has to be related to specific performance thresholds that the player hasn't reached in the previous year.

                For example, DJ Augustin could have a bonus for averaging 7 assists next year, and that bonus wouldn't count towards cap right away. Because he only averaged 6 assists last year.

                But that could be done by any team.

                Originally posted by Slick Pinkham View Post
                I don't know how the Rockets phrased the poison pill for Lin, but some reports have them making a different series of payments or different dollar amount than the Knicks would have to put up, in order to match.

                While I despise the Knicks, this sort of thing seems unfair and likely to come back to them at some point.
                In this case, it's not really the Rockets blatantly abusing the legal system like in that Dolphins example.
                Rather, the CBA consciously allows "poison pills" in this very specific situation.

                1. You have a team that's over the cap (Knicks, Bulls) and a player coming off a relatively short contract (Lin, Asik). Typically, teams over the cap can only offer a deal starting at ~5 mil to these players.
                2. On the other hand, a team with cap like Houston could offer these players a salary starting at 6 mil or 8 mil, whatever it wants.
                3. However, in this case these players are rookies, so the Knicks and the Bulls are given a chance to keep the player.
                Houston is offering Lin 8 mil per (from Houston's point of view). Knicks can match it, but it will count as 5-5-15 for them (also 8 mil per, but starting at 5 mil).

                It's a weird situation. But on the other hand, the Knicks are already given an exception here. Short term rookie, more restricted matching rights.

                Comment


                • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

                  Actually, the NFL poison pill contracts were different.

                  Steve Hutchinson received a 7 year 49 mil contract from Minnesota that guarantee'd his entire contract (remember, NFL doesn't have fully guarantee'd contracts) if he weren't the highest paid offensive lineman on the team. Walter Jones was on Seattle at the time, and was very highly paid. Other poison pill was Seattle's response - signing Nate Burleson for the same deal - 100% guarantee'd if he played more than 5 games in the state of Minnesota.
                  "man, PG has been really good."

                  Comment


                  • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

                    John Gambadoro
                    ‏@Gambo620

                    Hearing Grant Hill leaning towards Lakers after big push by Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant
                    The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

                    Comment


                    • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

                      Legion Sports ‏@MySportsLegion
                      Rumor: Dwight Howard will "protest" and will choose to sit out the entire season if not traded from Orlando.
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                      Legion Sports ‏@MySportsLegion
                      Dwight to sit out entire season (2 sources): http://mysportslegion.com/2012/07/dw...it-out-season/
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                      • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

                        Originally posted by BrownBearCoffee View Post
                        Legion Sports ‏@MySportsLegion
                        Rumor: Dwight Howard will "protest" and will choose to sit out the entire season if not traded from Orlando.
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                        Legion Sports ‏@MySportsLegion
                        Dwight to sit out entire season (2 sources): http://mysportslegion.com/2012/07/dw...it-out-season/
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                        Then Stern should suspend him for the next season. And if he really wants to sit this year, suspend him for the year so that Orlando doesn't have to pay his whiny rear.
                        "Nobody wants to play against Tyler Hansbrough NO BODY!" ~ Frank Vogel

                        "And David put his hand in the bag and took out a stone and slung it. And it struck the Philistine on the head and he fell to the ground. Amen. "

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                        • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

                          Rick Bonnell
                          ‏@rick_bonnell

                          Antawn Jamison still mulling decision: Bobcats, Lakers or Nets

                          --------
                          dang, if the Lakers get him their bench scoring is boosted greatly
                          The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

                          Comment


                          • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

                            If he sits out the season, he has breeched his contract and owes the Magic another season, I would think.

                            He may milk the injury to say he's not ready, but I see little hope for success.
                            The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

                            Comment


                            • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

                              Originally posted by wintermute View Post
                              Its only chance that big market teams NY and Chicago are holding on to Lin and Asik this time around. Imagine if we sign Orlando Johnson to a 2 year deal, and he breaks out in a big way during his second year. Let's say a team like NY or LA then presents a 5-5-15 offer to him (both teams will have cleared their massive contracts by then, so it's conceivable that they'd be far enough under the cap to do this). The Pacers are even more sensitive to luxury tax than big market teams are; there's no chance in hell they would match that offer.

                              To summarize my position, I'm in favor of any provision that helps a team keep its own FA, as I believe that this gives small market teams the best chance to retain talent. Sure, this will help big market teams keep their talent too, but in the long run I think it helps small market teams more (or more accurately, it hurts small market teams less than the alternative). A small market team's best chance at talent is to draft or develop it. A big market team also has the option to buy it. Therefore, limiting options to buy talent would, on balance, hurt big market teams more.

                              I'm not really sure luxury taxes have the desired leveling effect either. Just consider a team like OKC - through luck and good scouting, they've built a team with 4 players who are currently or soon will be making the max or near max. What a farce it would be when small market OKC ends up having to dismantle their team because of crippling luxury taxes meant to punish big markets.
                              I get your line of reasoning winterminute I just think you won't run into very many small markets losing their FA's this way. The poison pill is only used for teams that are near the LT and most of the smaller markets don't run near the LT most of the time.

                              I am really convinced that this affects larger markets more than smaller markets and if you really believe that you have a diamond in the rough as a GM or President then you sign the player for more years like Lance Stephenson contract.

                              Comment


                              • Re: Off season Rumors and Speculation

                                Dwight Howard, age 26

                                Senior at the University of Louisville.
                                Greenfield ---> The Ville

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