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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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The elephant in the room.

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  • #76
    Re: The elephant in the room.

    Originally posted by Pacergeek View Post
    Why not? He is just as good as PG shooting the 3. Paul isn't a very good shooter. Streaky, but not good. The percentages back me up
    Originally posted by Pacergeek View Post
    Lance is just as good as PG at shooting. I don't care what numbers suggest. From watching the games, PG isn't a good shooter. Nothing wrong with going to the rim and converting
    Lol noted

    Comment


    • #77
      Re: The elephant in the room.

      Originally posted by Ace E.Anderson View Post
      How exactly is Lance being treated though? Is he booed at home games? Is he unfairly criticized by local media? We criticize him here on PD, but he isn't criticized anymore than Paul George, Roy Hibbert or George Hill. Lance is definitely the most polarizing individual within this discussion board, but this is a discussion board. Lance isn't being treated or viewed any differently by the community, media, or teammates because he's a "street" kid.
      Thank you for at least being fair. I just disagree..In my view, Lance is much more heavily criticized than the others and its always the same stuff, "I don't like his body language", "I don't like his demeanor", "Lance stop playing like you're on the playground", etc, etc....He hasn't been truly accepted for his game, people are just content when we were winning and like I said, as soon as times get rough, you see who's getting most of the blame and its the most consistent player on the team..

      Comment


      • #78
        Re: The elephant in the room.

        Originally posted by timid View Post
        Thank you for at least being fair. I just disagree..In my view, Lance is much more heavily criticized than the others and its always the same stuff, "I don't like his body language", "I don't like his demeanor", "Lance stop playing like you're on the playground", etc, etc....He hasn't been truly accepted for his game, people are just content when we were winning and like I said, as soon as times get rough, you see who's getting most of the blame and its the most consistent player on the team..
        Roy and PG are anything but consistent though

        Comment


        • #79
          Re: The elephant in the room.

          Originally posted by Rogco View Post
          Funny thing is I think Hibbert has been the worst player over the last month for the way he's carried himself. His body language has stunk, he's been pouty, he's said things to media that he shouldn't have said. He's also the one who is always spouting his mouth off when things are going well. Still, I wouldn't blame Lance for any of the current issues, seems more to do with Hibbert's implosion and Paul George's inability to keep his dick out of the tabloids.
          Thats pretty much how I see it so I don't understand why Lance gets brought up so much unless A. He's the best player or B. He's taking more blame than he should be. I'm not sure about A. and B. seems more like it.

          Comment


          • #80
            Re: The elephant in the room.

            Originally posted by timid View Post
            Thank you for at least being fair. I just disagree..In my view, Lance is much more heavily criticized than the others and its always the same stuff, "I don't like his body language", "I don't like his demeanor", "Lance stop playing like you're on the playground", etc, etc....He hasn't been truly accepted for his game, people are just content when we were winning and like I said, as soon as times get rough, you see who's getting most of the blame and its the most consistent player on the team..
            As a "street" kid, I can see where you're coming from. I just disagree. So maybe that's why you view my logic as fair.

            I think as far as talking about his demeanor, and his "playground moves" those are just the things that Lance does. It's no different than fans complaining about Roy for playing soft, West for his defensive effort, Hill for not being a PG, and PG for complaining to the refs. When Lance is doing his playground stuff, and throws the ball into the stands, you instantly think "stop being fancy". It's the same as when PG is arguing with a ref and not getting back on defense. I just think you're taking some things out of context.

            Comment


            • #81
              Re: The elephant in the room.

              Originally posted by boombaby1987 View Post
              Have you seen an article blaming Lance for the downfall? Sure, some on here have blamed that, but the majority realize that Paul George is a big part of the team. I would dispute your claim that PG receives less criticism then Lance. PG has been all over the media this whole season. First, for good reasons. Lately, for bad reasons and off the court reasons. I don't know why you are playing Lance as a victim in this situation overall though. Seems misinformed.
              This might be because I read more forums than just this one..but on the general forums, the hate is not as strong and he's MUCH more genuinely liked on other forums. I don't know if its because those forums are more diverse or what but thats the case..I assume most posters here are either at least from Indiana if not Indianapolis...Even fans who live in Indiana but don't live in the heart of Indianapolis may not really understand where I'm coming from...

              Comment


              • #82
                Re: The elephant in the room.

                Originally posted by Ace E.Anderson View Post
                As a "street" kid, I can see where you're coming from. I just disagree. So maybe that's why you view my logic as fair.

                I think as far as talking about his demeanor, and his "playground moves" those are just the things that Lance does. It's no different than fans complaining about Roy for playing soft, West for his defensive effort, Hill for not being a PG, and PG for complaining to the refs. When Lance is doing his playground stuff, and throws the ball into the stands, you instantly think "stop being fancy". It's the same as when PG is arguing with a ref and not getting back on defense. I just think you're taking some things out of context.
                I mean, I can see that but what about when PG or somebody else throws the ball out of bounds trying to make a fancy play? We don't say the same things. We might say its dumb or whatever but we don't say its dumb "because its a street move or a street style....Like you said, thats Lance's game and he's good player in the best league in the world so if his game is "street" and he's made it this far, I don't see why that should a point for someone to criticize. If he throws the ball out of bounds, we should just call it dumb like we would do with any other player and move on..But thats not what I read and I go to games. I've probably been to around 20 games this year and I hear what fans say at the games. That's where I'm coming from. I hear this stuff at games, after the games, in bars, in restaraunts..I've been a fan forever just like most of you. I'm not just making up stuff...

                Your post is also encouraging to me. I don't know if you've felt like this but when I'm on this forum, or go certain places in the city, I naturally feel out of place, like there's nobody else there that I can relate to or that "looks" like me...I thought I may be the only "hood", "urban", "dreadhead" dude on the entire site. Or throw out any other generalization. Thats why I come off as defensive sometimes because I'm used to having a different perspective.

                Comment


                • #83
                  Re: The elephant in the room.

                  Originally posted by boombaby1987 View Post
                  Have you seen an article blaming Lance for the downfall? Sure, some on here have blamed that, but the majority realize that Paul George is a big part of the team. I would dispute your claim that PG receives less criticism then Lance. PG has been all over the media this whole season. First, for good reasons. Lately, for bad reasons and off the court reasons. I don't know why you are playing Lance as a victim in this situation overall though. Seems misinformed.
                  I agree nationally that PG gets more criticism because thats just how NBA fans are, they take anything and run with it...I'm mainly talking about Pacer fans in city and on this forum or even the Pacers forum on colts.com..I don't see PG getting the proper amount of criticism at least not compared to Lance and even Roy.

                  Comment


                  • #84
                    Re: The elephant in the room.

                    Originally posted by timid View Post
                    I agree nationally that PG gets more criticism because thats just how NBA fans are, they take anything and run with it...I'm mainly talking about Pacer fans in city and on this forum or even the Pacers forum on colts.com..I don't see PG getting the proper amount of criticism at least not compared to Lance and even Roy.
                    I would argue that Lance gets called an idiot on a lot of the other boards. RealGM Bulls is one that I can think of off the top of my head.
                    There is no NBA player named Monte Ellis.

                    Comment


                    • #85
                      Re: The elephant in the room.

                      I apologize if I offended any posters. I'm not trying to make this a racial issue but growing up in this city and state, its always seemed like a "slightly" racist state..When you say things like that, people look at you crazy and act like it doesn't exist AT ALL when that couldn't be further from the truth..So Ill be honest and say that I may be reaching a bit but I think there's a segment of Pacer fans that just don't like that "urban" culture and that perspective has just come from experience. This state in general just does not seem to care much about helping the lower class(regardless of race) so its not surprising that many people outside of out state have the same view...

                      Comment


                      • #86
                        Re: The elephant in the room.

                        Originally posted by timid View Post
                        I apologize if I offended any posters. I'm not trying to make this a racial issue but growing up in this city and state, its always seemed like a "slightly" racist state..When you say things like that, people look at you crazy and act like it doesn't exist AT ALL when that couldn't be further from the truth..So Ill be honest and say that I may be reaching a bit but I think there's a segment of Pacer fans that just don't like that "urban" culture and that perspective has just come from experience. This state in general just does not seem to care much about helping the lower class(regardless of race) so its not surprising that many people outside of out state have the same view...
                        TBH with you, there's no such thing as a state that isn't "slightly" racist.

                        Comment


                        • #87
                          Re: The elephant in the room.

                          Sorry, but while PG and Hill also can get caught up in trying to make fancy plays they really don't do it anywhere near as often as Lance does. It's been a few games since I've seen either Hill or PG try to make a fancy play (not a bad pass, a fancy play). I see Lance try one or two per game and I think he's pulled back from them recently.

                          I see Lance make fancy plays when a simple one will do - not even to try to bamboozle a defense, just to show off. I feel like PG and GHill are trying to do it when it would distract the defense.

                          I agree that PG can make horrible passes, and GHill as well - and both get criticized for them. But they are simply badly timed or aimed. Lance gets credit for making bad fancy passes when a simple pass would have been successful.
                          BillS

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

                          Comment


                          • #88
                            Re: The elephant in the room.

                            And I have to say that I am really really really really really really really really really really really really really tired of someone who gives criticism being called a "hater". Just sick of it. It's just a way to dismiss an opinion you don't like.

                            A hater wants the guy to fail and be off the team. That's a bit incompatible with saying if he'd do X, Y, or Z he'd be better.
                            BillS

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

                            Comment


                            • #89
                              Re: The elephant in the room.

                              Originally posted by timid View Post
                              This entire thread is about Lance basically...I haven't really seen anybody else being criticized as much. My view is mis-shapen because it differs from yours, gotcha....No, my view is from a street kid who gets treated EXACTLY like Lance is being treated. Thats at ALL my jobs, etc. I get jobs that people who look like me don't usually get because they don't expect me to be able to do what I do..It is what it is..I didn't make the world how it is....I get jobs in offices, big corporations where NOBODY in the entire place even remotely looks like me or comes from the same culture as me...THATS HOW IT IS....Obviously, I don't expect you to understand that. Doesn't make me wrong or make you right or vice versa. Its an OPINION and guess what opinions are generally based off of? Real-life experiences...Thats why I say stuff like this because I get tired of people acting like somebody's crazy because they don't see something the way THEY see it. Well, no *****. I wouldn't expect you to see it the way I do....I still stand behind what I said and if that makes me whatever, then so be it. I'm still going to speak the truth the way I see it...I've lived in this city my entire life and been all over it, I know what the majority view in Indiana is. From the police to the folks down at the State building, because I've worked there too....I KNOW what it is and MY opinion...This forum is a perfect example..You got certain posters who think they the right to talk down to other posters because they don't agree with them...
                              No, you're view is mis-shapen because you've judged a month long discussion on one freaking thread.

                              No one talks about PG, beause WE ALL AGREE. Lance is talked about, because we have posters trying to make outlandish arguments, like how people don't like Lance because of his culture.
                              Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

                              Comment


                              • #90
                                Re: The elephant in the room.

                                Originally posted by Pacergeek View Post
                                Lance is just as good as PG at shooting. I don't care what numbers suggest. From watching the games, PG isn't a good shooter. Nothing wrong with going to the rim and converting
                                You asked for percentages, got them, and then proceed to say you don't care what the numbers suggest. Good stuff.
                                Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right.” ― Ricky Gervais.

                                Comment

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