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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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COVID-19

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  • Heard today that IU West is at full capacity for covid19 patients. Other hospitals in our area are doing fine though.

    Comment


    • If this is real someone at Fox News needs to be fired. I will admit I laughed for a second though

      https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/co...tm_term=g2iu4h

      Comment


      • How Some Rich Americans Are Getting Stimulus ‘Checks’ Averaging $1.7 Million

        https://www.forbes.com/sites/shaharz...I#5743fea5665b

        An old article I remember reading back during the 2008 recession talked about how when crashes like this happen the super wealthy normally get his first and normally the hardest as the stock market normally crashed big time and they lose 50-60% of their portfolio. However, the stock market is almost the quickest to recover while wages for the working class are typically the slowest

        Comment



        • Daniel Dale✔@ddale8
          Trump on the $349 billion small business loan program whose funds have run out: "So just for the viewers watching this, or hearing you ask that question, exhausted is a good thing, not a bad thing. It went quickly, it is so popular."
          613
          2:05 AM - Apr 17, 2020

          Comment



          • Acyn Torabi@Acyn
            · 5h
            Dr. Phil appears on Laura Ingraham and says we don’t shut the country down for automobile deaths, cigarette related deaths, and swimming pool deaths Embedded video

            Comment


            • If only the rest of us realized that car accidents and swimming pool deaths are as contagious as COVID-19.

              Comment


              • Originally posted by vapacersfan View Post
                If only the rest of us realized that car accidents and swimming pool deaths are as contagious as COVID-19.
                If it is about saving lives if everyone drove 5 miles an hour deaths would drop almost to zero. That is 38,000 lives each year. If you do not agree with the 5 miles an hour rule
                then you are morally compromised. See how that works? Of course that will never happen. We accept that as the price we are willing to pay. You can apply the same to the economy. However in the economies case we can start out at 5 miles an hour and slowly increase the pace and limit the consequences. If we continue to stay in lockdown there are losses that cannot so easily be measured because of depression, suicide, abuse, poverty, etc. Not even talking about economic loss yet. Or how it affects minorities and the poor even more. There will be no easy way out of this.
                {o,o}
                |)__)
                -"-"-

                Comment


                • Originally posted by Pacersalltheway10 View Post
                  The only way you should even think about restarting the economy is if you have a massive (I'm talking home tests) testing plan in place. Waiting to test until people show symptoms doesn't do **** when it can spread asymptotically. Not to mention there's no consensus treatment yet and no vaccine. Now there's antibiotic shortages of the ZPack. I've talked to about 10 people and they've all said they're not going anywhere other than work, social distancing still in place or not. Shopping, restaurant, bars, and live sports aren't on any of our agendas until a vaccine or massive testing.
                  So we are going to sit at home for the next year or more? Really?? It is great you have friends who still work. What about
                  everyone else who cannot work??? Or the 22 million who filed already for unemployment?? Is 50 million around the corner????
                  The plan for lockdown was not to overwhelm the hospitals at one time. But to spread out infections over a longer period of time.
                  This virus is not going away any time soon.

                  Treatment is what is going to help change the paradigm long before a vaccine ever will.
                  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++
                  For some good news.....

                  A recent clinical trial of Remdesivir, an antiviral medicine used as a potential treatment for Ebola, found rapid recoveries in coronavirus patients' fever and respiratory symptoms.

                  The trial, conducted by the University of Chicago Medicine, found nearly all patients who were given daily infusions of Remdesivir were discharged from the hospital in less than a week.
                  Last edited by owl; 04-17-2020, 04:55 AM.
                  {o,o}
                  |)__)
                  -"-"-

                  Comment


                  • Originally posted by owl View Post

                    If it is about saving lives if everyone drove 5 miles an hour deaths would drop almost to zero. That is 38,000 lives each year. If you do not agree with the 5 miles an hour rule
                    then you are morally compromised. See how that works? Of course that will never happen. We accept that as the price we are willing to pay. You can apply the same to the economy. However in the economies case we can start out at 5 miles an hour and slowly increase the pace and limit the consequences. If we continue to stay in lockdown there are losses that cannot so easily be measured because of depression, suicide, abuse, poverty, etc. Not even talking about economic loss yet. Or how it affects minorities and the poor even more. There will be no easy way out of this.
                    Owl,

                    I like you a lot but this take is asinine at best.

                    Comparing a car accident and swimming pool deaths (which are devastating to the family but only impact the person injured or casualty) is TOTALLY different than rushing to open the economy (including schools). This kind of thinking is possibly irresponsible and where the rate of “R” (those infected) impacts not only me, but also possibly every person I come into contact with.....IMO saying “to hell with it just open everything up” is irresponsible. And this is coming form someone who would love nothing more than to go to the movies and go support my local restaurants and grab a daiquiri and gin and tonic in doing so.

                    You can apply the same to the economy. However in the economies case we can start out at 5 miles an hour and slowly increase the pace and limit the consequences.
                    This we agree with. It is going to be painful to go the next couple of months (to a year plus?) with social distancing but we need to open the economy with controls in place.

                    If we continue to stay in lockdown there are losses that cannot so easily be measured because of depression, suicide, abuse, poverty, etc. .
                    I have heard this argument a lot and while it is terrible to think of people who are struggling with quarantine (imagine being in a country with darn near martial law!) I can just as easily flip that and say how bad would it be for those people to go to work, get “R” times whatever rate infected and then have their grandmas and grandpas infected with COVID-19...and possible worse. This is where I get the most frustrated. If you (I am not talking to you Owl but using the “general you”) want to go out while you are sick I think that is irresponsible (with a general cold) but that doesn’t impact the rest of society. However if you do that with COVID-19 (or even worse if you do that with COVID-19 and dont know you have it) you are possibly infecting a LOT of people....some of which may have people at home who are more susceptible (or some of which may be care takers for those who are more susceptible)

                    Not even talking about economic loss yet. Or how it affects minorities and the poor even more.
                    One thing I still wish the U.S did (I do not even know if it would be legal) would be to freeze rent and mortgages until we are a little more in the clear. I agree this situation has a huge impact on the lower class, however at some point we have to decide which is more important: the economy or the health of our overall population.

                    There will be no easy way out of this
                    Aint that the truth. My best friend is posted in South Korea. We talk daily about our experiences. I don’t care what social class you are in no one ever imagined living through something like this. I pray every day that everyone comes out of this ok and we can get back to a new sense of normal (whatever the new “normal” is), but we both agree that there will be no easy way out.

                    Comment


                    • Originally posted by owl View Post
                      So we are going to sit at home for the next year or more? Really?? It is great you have friends who still work. What about
                      everyone else who cannot work??? Or the 22 million who filed already for unemployment?? Is 50 million around the corner????
                      That does not even count the folks who wanted to file for unemployment but could not.

                      One of my other fears is my family who work as bartenders and severs in restaurants. Even if we reopen the economy, those jobs are not coming back right away. I fear for them a lot. It’s going to be a rough year or two ahead for them.

                      The plan for lockdown was not to overwhelm the hospitals at one time. But to spread out infections over a longer period of time.
                      This virus is not going away any time soon.
                      Agreed. But if we open everything too soon we could end up having to do this all over again in an effort to not overwhelm hospitals (I would post the image here of the parade...I think in Philadelphia....where the city thought they were in the clear but X hundred thousand people got infected and it was a major medical set back)















                      Comment



                      • Vincent Rajkumar✔@VincentRK
                        Singapore should be a warning to us. They had COVID under excellent control. Now it’s out of control: 728 new cases yesterday. When we relax social distancing measures prematurely we risk a second wave. Places where groups of people work/live close to each other are at high risk. View image on Twitter

                        Comment


                        • Wait, what?!?!

                          nikki mccann ramírez@NikkiMcR
                          · 13h
                          Scott Walker thinks we should reopen the manufacturing sector by closing breakrooms and lunchrooms to "keep people at their machinery" Embedded video

                          Comment



                          • Jennifer Jacobs✔@JenniferJJacobs
                            TRUMP told the governors we're going to get sports back. He wants stadiums and ballparks and arenas open as soon as possible but with empty seats for social distancing spacing, I’m told.
                            35
                            12:28 AM - Apr 17, 2020
                            Twitter Ads info and privacy

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