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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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2020-21 Indiana Athletics thread

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  • Sollozzo
    replied
    Originally posted by clownskull View Post
    Well, I could of course be wrong on this (it's happened plenty of times in my life) but, I don't share the optimism regarding Sampson. He was bringing in the same kind of guys he was at Oklahoma. Granted, Gordon was always gonna be a one and done but as far as I'm aware, at least he was getting decent grades while he was here. The other guys Sampson brought in though... not so much. Even if he hadn't been bought out, most of those guys he brought in weren't going to be playing that next year either from failing grades or drug tests.

    and now with this loss to Illinois, iu sits one game (for now) over .500
    they're likely gonna finish well under .500 too. I just don't see AM as the guy who is going to revitalize this sinking program. Frankly, I don't even know who can.

    Wasn't Sampson on track to bring in some huge recruits for the 08-09 season? Could someone with a better memory of that fill me in?

    Yeah there were some problem guys on that team, but I think everything falling apart exacerbated it. Sampson could just flat out coach. That team was what, 22-4 when he resigned? With IU's resources, he would have always been able to find enough quality players. That, combined with his coaching, would have always had us in the mix.

    Leave a comment:


  • Bball
    replied
    Has anyone mentioned that the offense under Archie Miller is absolutely horrid? Even in the wins, it's not like the offense looked good. Yes, hitting FT's helps. But then, poor FT shooting is also a Miller staple.
    I'm almost missing that Crean weave.

    Leave a comment:


  • Trader Joe
    replied
    Archie should be questioned big time this year for his obvious mishandling of Khristian Lander. Dunno if he's skittish on playing 5 star perimeter guys after some of the flack he got for the freedom he gave Romeo, but Lander was basically playing on the shortest leash in the history of the program til 3 games ago. Yeah Lander reclassified so he's very, very young, but come on. 5 star guys gotta play.

    His numbers aren't anything crazy at all, but he's starting to play with more confidence and it's obvious just having him out there raises the pace of play of the team which is really, really needed.

    Leave a comment:


  • Trader Joe
    replied
    Originally posted by Bball View Post
    And IU beats Iowa... again...
    But Iowa seems to be in a bit of a funk of late.

    IU's offense had a couple of nice runs, and Franklin soloed and hit a go ahead shot with under 2 secs on the clock. So there's that... But man.. ...IU's offense looks bad most of the time.
    Iowa does this every year they have a "good team". They absolutely nose dive come late January and basically play .500 or below .500 ball before a disappointing tournament exit. So really not surprising IMO.

    Leave a comment:


  • Bball
    replied
    And IU beats Iowa... again...
    But Iowa seems to be in a bit of a funk of late.

    IU's offense had a couple of nice runs, and Franklin soloed and hit a go ahead shot with under 2 secs on the clock. So there's that... But man.. ...IU's offense looks bad most of the time.

    Leave a comment:


  • Bball
    replied
    I'd like to know how it possibly gets better from here? What exactly can I hang my hat on to think this will be better the rest of the season... or next season... or the season after?

    Recruiting is only going to get worse, so the above has to improve with recruiting getting worse before it can possibly get better. And if things don't improve, then recruiting won't improve either. It's the death spiral. The same thing happened with Crean.
    It's why Archie arrived and the cupboard was pretty bare.

    The longer it takes to address the obvious, the worse position the new coach will be in.
    Last edited by Bball; 02-03-2021, 07:25 PM.

    Leave a comment:


  • Sollozzo
    replied
    Originally posted by Trader Joe View Post
    There is just nothing fun to watch about college basketball now that the crowds are gone. It is really an abysmal product hwen you take that away and IU is a truly bad example of that abysmal product. Watching IU basketball is honestly a chore.

    Yeah, I should have trusted my gut and gone to bed around 11, but instead I stayed up to watch that. You're right - it really was a chore.

    Leave a comment:


  • Trader Joe
    replied
    There is just nothing fun to watch about college basketball now that the crowds are gone. It is really an abysmal product hwen you take that away and IU is a truly bad example of that abysmal product. Watching IU basketball is honestly a chore.

    Leave a comment:


  • Sollozzo
    replied
    Also, the overly whistle-happy nature of college officiating can make games nearly unwatchable at times.

    Leave a comment:


  • Sollozzo
    replied
    I wish I could have that missed hour of sleep back.

    Leave a comment:


  • Bball
    replied
    No doubt about it now for me... Archie is a total swing and a miss. I gave him plenty of slack before just saying it... But start the clock. He's not the answer, and he's going to be gone. It's just a question of when. In months, or a couple more wasted seasons.
    The next phase of this will be recruiting misses now. That's just going to make it worse. Unless a kid just wants to go to IU for education or loves the campus, there's no point in coming for basketball. Not unless you're a 2nd or 3rd tier recruit and IU is your ticket to play in the B10... and that is your dream.
    But the tier one athletes will have options, including within the conference. And why would they want to come to IU now? A one and done player would just waste a season. A 4 year player, besides wondering if IU will even make the tournament in his 4 years, now has to wonder who will be the coach, if not his first couple of years, definitely the last couple.

    I'd like to be wrong, but IU has had the SAME issues, each year of Archie's tenure. Just with more complete teams making the failures even more frustrating.

    Leave a comment:


  • clownskull
    replied
    Well, I could of course be wrong on this (it's happened plenty of times in my life) but, I don't share the optimism regarding Sampson. He was bringing in the same kind of guys he was at Oklahoma. Granted, Gordon was always gonna be a one and done but as far as I'm aware, at least he was getting decent grades while he was here. The other guys Sampson brought in though... not so much. Even if he hadn't been bought out, most of those guys he brought in weren't going to be playing that next year either from failing grades or drug tests.

    and now with this loss to Illinois, iu sits one game (for now) over .500
    they're likely gonna finish well under .500 too. I just don't see AM as the guy who is going to revitalize this sinking program. Frankly, I don't even know who can.

    Leave a comment:


  • Sollozzo
    replied
    Originally posted by D-BONE View Post

    Only thing I can say at this point is AM has been and, I fear, will go down as a total failure of a hire. I just don't think he's got any mojo just in terms of being a leader from what I've seen both on the sidelines and in front of the press corps. Seem it was a mistake to give THAT length of contract. But the face it took that much to get AM probably signals just how desperate the program has become, as you point out. At this point, I just think we're paying back all the Knight-era karma. Who knows how long that will take. He had quite the dynasty.

    I think the whole Sampson thing is what really changed the direction of the program. It's just never fully recovered. We had a few good regular seasons in the Crean era, but aside from that its been either mediocrity or downright awful play.

    I remember the beginning of the Sampson era very well. There was such a huge buzz around the fanbase. I think his first team won every home game at Assembly Hall that year - a very good team that had a good year and lost to a tough UCLA team in the tournament that was on its way to a Final Four. Then the next year was the Gordon year. I'll never forget those first few games with Gordon when he just came out lighting people up and it just felt like the future of IU basketball was Kelvin Sampson recruiting a lot of players like Eric Gordon. That was an awesome feeling. There's no doubt in my mind that we would have been an elite program over the last 15 years had he stayed. He'd almost surely still be here because he obviously wanted very much to be IU's coach and win here.

    Leave a comment:


  • D-BONE
    replied
    Originally posted by Sollozzo View Post

    To Knight's credit, he did recruit the players on the 2002 team. But yes, the final years of his actual coaching tenure were the beginning of a now over 25 year stretch of incredible mediocrity aside from one magical 2002 run.

    Knight's final Elite 8 as a coach was in 1993. Since then, the only other year we made the Elite 8 was 2002 when we went all the way to the championship game.

    I mean that is just an absoltuely shocking run of medicority-to downright bad results. Like I said, you literally have to be 40 years old to have any sort of firm memory of IU being consistently relevant....and even a 40 year old wouldn't remember too much of it at this point.
    Only thing I can say at this point is AM has been and, I fear, will go down as a total failure of a hire. I just don't think he's got any mojo just in terms of being a leader from what I've seen both on the sidelines and in front of the press corps. Seem it was a mistake to give THAT length of contract. But the face it took that much to get AM probably signals just how desperate the program has become, as you point out. At this point, I just think we're paying back all the Knight-era karma. Who knows how long that will take. He had quite the dynasty.

    Leave a comment:


  • Sollozzo
    replied
    Originally posted by clownskull View Post
    yes, it was time to move beyond knight. '93 was the last truly successful year we had under him. sure there were some other years that were pretty good but, from there, it was a slow, but steady decline. the talent level on the squad was declining and the talented players we were getting, often left because of knight (reed, collier, recker) in his last six runs at the ncaa tournament, 4 were first round eliminations and the other 2 were second round. since his firing, we've seen a championship game appearance in 2002 and 3 sweet sixteens. several years where we saw no post-season beyond btt.
    iu basketball has (for the last 20 years or so) been mostly failure, embarrassment and frustration.
    To Knight's credit, he did recruit the players on the 2002 team. But yes, the final years of his actual coaching tenure were the beginning of a now over 25 year stretch of incredible mediocrity aside from one magical 2002 run.

    Knight's final Elite 8 as a coach was in 1993. Since then, the only other year we made the Elite 8 was 2002 when we went all the way to the championship game.

    I mean that is just an absoltuely shocking run of medicority-to downright bad results. Like I said, you literally have to be 40 years old to have any sort of firm memory of IU being consistently relevant....and even a 40 year old wouldn't remember too much of it at this point.

    Leave a comment:

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