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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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  • Originally posted by BlueNGold View Post
    The average age of a black man in the United States is 75. That's how old Herman would have turned in 4 months.

    With him being a vulnerable person with this virus, yes he should have shut it down. But he lived his life essentially the way he wanted to do it. Good for him.
    Yeah I bet he is happy he died
    @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

    Comment


    • https://news.yahoo.com/miami-dade-ic...151222876.html

      Snippets:

      "The information comes from the “senior leadership brief” for July 27 prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS, and distributed to federal agencies involved in the pandemic crisis. The document includes detailed analyses on various aspects of the crisis, from emerging hot spots to supply chain updates."

      "In the section titled “Medical care,” the document notes that in Florida, “hospitalizations increased 79% since July 4, with 8,974 current COVID-19 patients; ICU beds in Miami-Dade County at 146% capacity.” "


      "The document also reported “hospitals reaching capacity” and an emergency response system “under strain” in Georgia, as well as diminishing hospital capacity in South Carolina, Louisiana and Texas. Those states reopened more eagerly than their counterparts in the Northeast and the Pacific Northwest, and have recently experienced high coronavirus case counts.
      "

      "Florida has proven especially concerning because of its large elderly population, which gives it the high median age of 42 (the median age nationwide is 38). Although the state’s 691 nursing homes had appeared to have been spared, the coronavirus is now making inroads there."

      Concerns about hospital beds in Florida have been building for some time, but the internal Trump administration document suggests that the problem is more severe than had been previously thought. Those concerns have been compounded by allegations that Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration is manipulating or hiding data about the pandemic.

      There had been hopes that Florida was past the worst, but those hopes have been tempered in the last two days, with the state reporting consecutive fatality records, with 186 deaths on Tuesday and 217 on Wednesday. DeSantis, a Republican acolyte of President Trump, has come under growing criticism for his handling of the pandemic.

      "Also on Wednesday, the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration reported that 51 hospitals across the state had no ICU capacity whatsoever."

      "Downplaying suggestions of overcrowding or undersupply, DeSantis said that hospitals were achieving “incredibly great results.”
      Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.

      ------

      "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork."

      -John Wooden

      Comment


      • We might not know for sure where Herman Cain contracted the disease, as the article tells us (though the timing makes Tulsa suspicious), but we do know he was doing a lot of traveling and at some point likely 'sharing' the coronavirus with others during those travels.

        No matter how 'OK' with the idea of contracting and dying with the virus he may or may not have personally been, what about the people he might have potentially spread it to? That includes directly, with contact to him, or indirectly with people he might've contacted spreading it to the others?

        And of course, he became another statistic that hospital staff had to provide a bed and medical care for.... in a pandemic....

        Nobody is immune... Including the people you might give it to.
        Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.

        ------

        "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork."

        -John Wooden

        Comment


        • BNG: "he was so happy dancing to his grave what a hero"



          @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!

          Comment


          • Just don't see how the baseball season can continue at this rate. They will be forced to cancel series left and right:


            The Philadelphia Phillies have canceled all activities at Citizens Bank Park, including a weekend series against the Blue Jays, after a member of the coaching staff and a member of the home clubhouse staff tested positive for the coronavirus, the team announced Thursday.

            https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ts-coronavirushttps://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ts-coronavirus

            Comment


            • As I've mentioned multiple times in this thread, I'm not anti-mask. I have been wearing them for months. Here is an article lamenting why many Americans will not wear them. But the issue I have is people lecturing about it. Claiming the people are confused, essentially insulting their intelligence.

              The fact is, some people just disagree. Some people realize death is this thing that's happening anyway. Dare I say, some people want to die and not for the 72 virgins. Some others consider the reduced access to healthcare to be a greater issue. Some believe the economy is more important. Some people just refuse to live in fear of it. Some people actually do have bigger problems than death so to be honest they'd be relieved to be taken out. Some people just have a much higher tolerance for risk and prefer living their life on their own terms without being dictated by the government. What I'm saying is that not everyone thinks like the people lecturing them. Most people realize this disease is deadly. But what they value and prioritize simply isn't what the mask police value and prioritize.

              -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

              This behavior, Wright says, is influenced by a sense of distress and a lack of understanding of why the masks are necessary. It was also made worse by the fact that officials at the World Health Organization, in an effort to ensure that face masks went first to frontline health care workers, declared that masks were not recommended for everyone.

              “You’ve got this huge sense of distrust of the government,” Wright said, “whether it’s local or federal. You’ve got distrust in the science. And then you have this really unfortunate situation where the science changed — science does that, especially in certain situations that are so novel and uncertain, but that’s really confusing for people.”

              https://news.yahoo.com/why-some-amer...175812512.html
              Source: Yahoo

              No, it's not confusing people. I just got back from the gas station and there was a guy not wearing a mask coming out. It was pretty clear he didn't care and was aware of it. But make no mistake, most people are wearing them now. and we are probably in the 90-95% range in public places.

              Comment


              • Fauci has a new suggestion. Wear goggles.

                "You have mucosa in the nose, mucosa in the mouth, but you also have mucosa in the eye," he said. "Theoretically, you should protect all the mucosal surfaces. So if you have goggles or an eye shield you should use it."

                https://krld.radio.com/articles/radi...earing-goggles

                Comment


                • With this virus surging out of control, we may need to delay the election until the vaccine has been developed, produced and administered to the entire population. Possibly November 2021? Obviously we cannot have so many people touching the same machines. The lines would really be too long. Too many people in the same room. Absentee ballots also pass the virus and I'm sure the Russians would mail in millions of votes for Trump. Really, just too dangerous to have the election don't you think? I think Biden has it right. Just stay in your basement until that vaccine is available and another year of Trump shouldn't be a big deal...

                  Comment


                  • Require social distancing in the voting lines. Open as many polling places as possible to minimize lines. Require masks. Put a bottle of hand sanitizer in every voting booth. Frequently disinfect machines, or even provide cloves to voters.
                    Allow mail in voting.... (for a wider range of reasons, including a pandemic)
                    Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.

                    ------

                    "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork."

                    -John Wooden

                    Comment


                    • So moving on.....

                      This is something that is not getting enough attention. The secondary infections of bacteria or fungi are really problematic. In fact PBS yesterday did a special on the antibiotic start up collapse in the country. Basically more drug resistant bugs are killing people.

                      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKCN24V3SH

                      Comment


                      • I have a feeling the flu season will be really light this year if mask orders and social distance measures are kept in place. Australia is already reporting less influenza kids in their hospitals and other countries are as well.

                        Comment


                        • I have a feeling the flu season will be really light this year if mask orders and social distance measures are kept in place. Australia is already reporting less influenza kids in their hospitals and other countries are as well.

                          Comment


                          • Here's something I saw on the ESPN ticker yesterday: in NCAAF only one captain will be allowed to attend coin toss per team. Because of COVID??? Like that's going to do anything with the way football players are all over each other during games? How delusional are some of these people?!

                            Comment


                            • Just saw Multiple members of the Cardinals have tested positive, so the MLB has cancelled the Brewers-Cardinals series. The MLB has had to cancel multiple series already and it looks like the season is collapsing.

                              Credit to the NBA because a “bubble” is the only thing that could have a chance at this point in time.

                              No way in hell will football be able to work anytime soon.

                              Comment


                              • Heart damage found in coronavirus patients months after recovering from COVID-19, study says




                                New evidence suggests the coronavirus has lasting impacts on the heart, raising alarm for cardiologists who have been concerned about potential long-term heart injury from COVID-19.

                                Two German studies, published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Cardiology, found heart abnormalities in COVID-19 patients months after they had already recovered from the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2.

                                The first study included 100 patients from the University of Hospital Frankfurt COVID-19 Registry who were relatively healthy adults in their 40s and 50s. About one-third of the patients required hospitalization, while the rest recovered from home.

                                Researchers looked at cardiac magnetic resonance imaging taken nearly two and a half months after they were diagnosed and compared them with images from people who never had COVID-19. The study found heart abnormalities in 78 patients, with 60 of those patients showing signs of inflammation in the heart muscle from the virus.
                                .... click link for more....



                                https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...BIOS9P2XucLIzM
                                Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.

                                ------

                                "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork."

                                -John Wooden

                                Comment

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