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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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Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

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  • #31
    Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

    What are we going to make the All-Star team a real team. Amazing

    Comment


    • #32
      Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

      So this is okay, but the NBA wasn't allowing Chris Paul to go to the Lakers? I get it.

      The NBA, where logic happens.

      Comment


      • #33
        Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

        Originally posted by Basketball Fan View Post
        End result is the same no parity in the NBA. I mean that seems to be the real issue with people even though the NBA hasn't had parity since the 70s?

        What makes it so much worse now than back then?
        It wasn't the same as this. The Celtics, Lakers and today's Spurs were built via the draft and savvy trades. There is a sense of fair play and competition. All-stars deciding to join forces without teams being able to compete for their services through trades is unfair competition. Heck, it's no competition at all. In fact, I'm finding that it's not worth watching.

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        • #34
          Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

          This will not work

          but it's good to see no one is overreacting in this thread
          Last edited by Unclebuck; 06-12-2014, 01:35 PM.

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          • #35
            Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

            All four guys will sign with the Heat for $12 million each. Lebron and Wade agree to give Carmelo a small percentage of their jersey sales and other endorsements to Melo.



            All the Heat have to do to improve their scoring potential is let Bosh go and sign Melo to take his place. Maybe Bosh would be willing to switch sides and come here for that same discount, the Pacers let Lance go to the Heat for the MLE so he can be in position to take Wade's place. Bosh could open up the paint for Roy, who also would no longer have to worry about Lance...


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            • #36
              Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

              Originally posted by CableKC View Post
              Yes, it's entirely possible. The current Big 3 could opt out of their existing contracts, sign Melo ( or whatever Near Elite Type Player ) to a near MAX contract ( since they will be under the cap ) and then re-sign the rest of the original Big 3 to however big of a contract that they can afford while getting close to the LT or even over it. Fill out the roster to vet minimum contracts.

              I don't know...EFF them if they do. Just give me another reason to hate the Heat.
              You are right. It is entirely possible. But not quite like what you state. Miami has 95M in cap holds, with each of the big 3 being around 20M each. They cannot sign a free agent to anything more than one of their salary exceptions before first getting their committed salary and cap hold total under the salary cap far enough to absorb the contract.

              If they want to pay a player like Carmelo a large salary, they will first re-sign or renounce most of their own free agents. With the huge cap holds of the big 3, they would probably re-sign each of them to new starting contracts of 13M-14M each, re-sign Chalmers to whatever, release the rest then sign Carmelo to most of whatever salary remains. They will then fill out their roster using their exceptions and signing minimum salary players.

              They can keep the big 3 as well as Cole (still under contract), as well as Haslem and Anderson if they don't also opt out, and the can sign Carmelo. But the high-end four players will now have to split the majority of the pie by 4, not 3, so each player will have to have their initial salary start out less than than what the big 3 did a few years ago.

              If they do this, I'd like to see the NBA go back to "a man's league", where touch fouls no longer exist. At least then we can bring on two or three Wendell Ladner's to our roster and beat the living crap out of each of the big 4 every time one of them goes through the lane. My motto will still remain "if you can't beat them then beat on them". That will go double for Miami.

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              • #37
                Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

                I think this is largely due to the heavy restrictions the NBA puts on max contracts. By keeping contract lengths so short and salaries so low, the league has eliminated incentives that might have kept players from joining up. If all things are equal in salary, why wouldn't you go to the better city with the better players? There's really no incentive not to go to a big market.


                This is especially true now that sports media and fans absolutely destroy guys who don't win championships. The rational choice is to join a super team in a big market.

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                • #38
                  Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

                  I'm really trying to figure out how much (if any) stock I should put into this particular rumor. If I had anything to do with the Miami Heat organization right now, my sole focus is on winning a championship. I couldn't imagine being remotely focused on the off-season right now in a 2-1 series, much less having an "immediate focus" on it.

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                  • #39
                    Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

                    I'm sure LeBron would talk to Melo about it. As for it happening? Unlikely, and integrating 4 star players like that, and trying to make them all happy? That would be difficult.
                    Last edited by BlueCollarColts; 06-12-2014, 12:58 AM.

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                    • #40
                      Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

                      Anthony needs 20+ shots to get 20 points. Unless he took on a completely different identity, I can't see how it would work. Too many players on the court that would need the ball in their hands to be successful.

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                      • #41
                        Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

                        Originally posted by Believe_in_blue View Post
                        If this happens I'm done watching the NBA.
                        100% with you on this. I will be done as well if this happens.
                        PACER FAN ON STRIKE!!!-The moment the Pacers fire Larry Bird I will cheer for them again.

                        Comment


                        • #42
                          Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

                          Originally posted by LuckSwagger View Post
                          Anthony needs 20+ shots to get 20 points. Unless he took on a completely different identity, I can't see how it would work. Too many players on the court that would need the ball in their hands to be successful.
                          He does that when he is the one and only focus of the offense. When he is playing next to Lebron, with only the second (or even third) best defender on the other team guarding him he will find it much easier to score.

                          Comment


                          • #43
                            Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

                            Originally posted by Basketball Fan View Post
                            End result is the same no parity in the NBA. I mean that seems to be the real issue with people even though the NBA hasn't had parity since the 70s?

                            What makes it so much worse now than back then?
                            The CBA. Is there a league out there with a more complex salary cap structure than the NBA? The thing about the extreme complexity with it being a soft cap with a million exceptions, trades, sign-and-trades, cap holds, max salaries, etc. The more complex a system is, the more exceptions there are, the easier it is to find a loophole or game the system to your advantage if you just have the right combination of something. (big market, other super stars, preferred climate, etc.) It makes signing and trading players an unfair game. Some teams have advantages over other teams that can easily be taken advantage of. A more simple system, say a hard cap with no max contract, and those are the only rules is basically impossible to game. Everyone is on an even playing field.

                            Often people like to say you can't compare the NFL to the NBA, but that is just ignorance (or blind devotion). The truth is, if the NBA had a similar system as the NFL (hard cap, no max, only partially guaranteed contracts) the league as a whole would be better off. You would get more parity. You would see fan bases of lesser teams and smaller markets grow as they feel like their team actually has a chance to be competitive more often. Teams can more easily recover from stupid management, as they don't have to keep the bad apples around.

                            Of course there are other systems you could use that would be even better at this. Such as a system that has a set pay structure, where upon signing you declare the player to be your franchise players, so they get paid a standard amount and he is the only player on the team who can be the franchise player. Then you can declare two players as your core 1 players, and they get paid a standard amount, then 3 core 2 players, 2 core bench, etc. Don't really think it would be a good idea in practice (too restrictive), but just an example of a different approach.

                            Comment


                            • #44
                              Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

                              Originally posted by beast23 View Post
                              You are right. It is entirely possible. But not quite like what you state. Miami has 95M in cap holds, with each of the big 3 being around 20M each. They cannot sign a free agent to anything more than one of their salary exceptions before first getting their committed salary and cap hold total under the salary cap far enough to absorb the contract.

                              If they want to pay a player like Carmelo a large salary, they will first re-sign or renounce most of their own free agents. With the huge cap holds of the big 3, they would probably re-sign each of them to new starting contracts of 13M-14M each, re-sign Chalmers to whatever, release the rest then sign Carmelo to most of whatever salary remains. They will then fill out their roster using their exceptions and signing minimum salary players.

                              They can keep the big 3 as well as Cole (still under contract), as well as Haslem and Anderson if they don't also opt out, and the can sign Carmelo. But the high-end four players will now have to split the majority of the pie by 4, not 3, so each player will have to have their initial salary start out less than than what the big 3 did a few years ago.

                              If they do this, I'd like to see the NBA go back to "a man's league", where touch fouls no longer exist. At least then we can bring on two or three Wendell Ladner's to our roster and beat the living crap out of each of the big 4 every time one of them goes through the lane. My motto will still remain "if you can't beat them then beat on them". That will go double for Miami.
                              So, it is possible to do this? Renounce everyone except for Haslem and Cole ( who are on the books ), get under the Salary Cap at roughly $6.65 mil with 2 Players....go back and sign the Huge 4 at $13 mil a piece...and then sign the 7 remaining Players at the minimum contracts.
                              Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

                              Comment


                              • #45
                                Re: Miami Heat look to target Carmelo Anthony

                                Carmelo usually was a very good Olympic player whenever I saw him play, unless I'm thinking of someone else, not sure. I don't see this happening and there's nothing from Carmelo's camp about it yet. I think he'd rather go to Chicago or Houston or Lakers and knowingly get max money and be more known as a top player. I don't see him being the 4th rung on a championship team, plus are you then conceding that you're playing LeBron at PF then, or are you not playing without a point guard. Either Cole/Wade/Melo/LeBron/Bosh or Wade/Melo/LeBron/Bosh/whoever else... I don't think it honestly helps the Heat much at all.
                                "It's just unfortunate that we've been penalized so much this year and nothing has happened to the Pistons, the Palace or the city of Detroit," he said. "It's almost like it's always our fault. The league knows it. They should be ashamed of themselves to let the security be as lax as it is around here."

                                ----------------- Reggie Miller

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