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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.

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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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Cuban silences the Music

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  • Cuban silences the Music

    http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/13563817.htm

    Mavs fans: Don't stop the music
    By JEFF CAPLAN
    Star-Telegram Staff Writer

    DALLAS -- The night the music died inside American Airlines Center, Mavericks fans, apparently disoriented by the anachronism of sneakers squeaking on hardwood, basketballs thumping and players grunting, told owner Mark Cuban to pump up the volume.

    During the Dec. 30 game against Golden State, Cuban silenced every last note of ear-splitting music that's normally incessantly piped in over the Mavs' PA system -- a direct response to a remark NBA commissioner David Stern made last month about the abundance of artificial noise filling the league's arenas.

    The experiment triggered a decisive fan reaction directed to Cuban's inbox.

    "Ten to 1," Cuban said, "against the sneakers and for the music."

    The sensory assault of recorded music, an alternating cacophony of blaring rock, hip-hop and R&B that's often blasted near the decibel level of a jet airliner and played nearly throughout the entirety of actual game action, has emerged as a staple at just about every NBA arena over the past five years.

    "People got really used to that and comfortable with it," said Steve Letson, Mavs vice president of operations. "So now, when it's quiet, it's like, 'Geez, what's going on? Something's wrong.'"

    Letson, with the Mavs for 22 years, remembers simpler days at Reunion Arena, when a drum beat enticed fans into the chant, "Dee-Fense," or a trumpet urged the crowd to scream, "Charge!"

    Now, Letson sits courtside for every home game. His headset keeps him in communication with a DJ, who shuffles through an immense inventory of songs, as well as the operators of the scoreboard LED screens, which display movie clips and other noisy prompts.

    Often, Letson takes cues from the owner, sitting along the baseline, flashing hand signals like a conductor to crank things up.

    "Quite honestly, there's a balance there," Letson said. "Sometimes we don't give the fans a chance. We bombard them with so much fan prompts that you don't know if they're saying anything or not."

    'Silent Night'

    Stern apparently has been wondering the same thing. Or, at least, a questioner on an ESPN Web chat last month got Stern to thinking.
    Stern was asked why PA systems are allowed to pipe in music during games: "If home fans can't get pumped up and make noise on their own, there is something really wrong with your league. The game should be the entertainment."

    Stern said, "I agree," and added, "Unfortunately, most of our teams don't and think that the fans like the entertainment. We're trying to find a few games to experiment with, for teams to give us a 'silent night,' so to speak."
    Always eager to set the trend -- he, after all, helped usher in this new age of constant noise and in-game entertainment -- Cuban, initially opposed to Stern's idea, decided to indulge the commissioner.

    "I figured if it worked, great," Cuban said. "If not, it would put all the discussion to bed."

    Interestingly, since Stern's rather innocuous answer on the chat, teams have begun to examine their in-game entertainment operation.

    "I don't believe we're ever going to go back to an environment where we're not playing any music," said Brian Byrnes, the SuperSonics' vice president of sales and marketing, "but there's enough people talking about maybe too much in-game entertainment, maybe too much music, maybe too many things happening. I think we're all realizing that maybe the consumer has just gotten a little tired of just music all the time."

    That's what Cuban set out to find out. But fan reaction was apparently so one-sided to the silent treatment, Cuban said, that at the next home game against Portland, the usual Rolling Stones song, Start Me Up, accompanied the entirety of the Mavs' first possession. The normal music onslaught was then gradually worked in.

    And it will be back in force for Saturday's game against Minnesota, Letson said, because that's what Cuban has determined the ticket-buying customer wants, even expects.

    "As they've priced themselves so highly, people expect entertainment for their dollar," said Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. "And, they don't necessarily want the risk of walking into a game that's so boring because of the product on the floor that there's nothing else to enhance the entertainment value of being there."

    Quiet, please

    These days, the Mavs are an entertaining product without penetrating deep inside the public's ear drums.

    But teams have long been in search of ways to pump up the home crowds and produce louder, advantageous noise levels.

    Jeff Scalf, the Indiana Pacers' vice president of game operations, piped in the roaring sound of an Indy race car when the Pacers were on defense during the 1994 season.

    So many teams complained that the deafening sound was a distraction that the league outlawed it. A few years later, the Chicago Bulls were at the center of a noise complaint. Teams became frustrated when the Bulls played a musical tape for the duration of the opponents' possession, though there was a rule against music being played while the home team is on defense.

    Today, home teams can play a drum beat or some other electronic-induced prompt on defense and actual songs, with lyrics, while on offense, a setup Cuban believes enhances the game's experience for fans, especially younger ones.

    "We're going to go wherever our customers tell us to go, but in the interim, we'll try to mix it up and see if there's a better solution," Cuban said. "The whole goal is to find a better scenario, but you can't find one until you experiment."

    So far, it does not appear that Stern has requested any teams to go silent for a night or two. There is at least a plan in the works to incorporate the idea into the NBA's Hardwood Classic Nights that celebrate the history of the NBA, "using only old-school organ music for fan prompts," NBA entertainment executive vice president Gregg Winik said.

    While the NBA and its teams might never be able to please all of its fans all of the time, a reduction in noise levels might even find common ground with some of its players.

    "I kind of like it a little quiet sometimes," said the Mavs' Jerry Stackhouse. "There is time for music in the regular season on those nights where there isn't that much energy in the building. In the postseason, you may not need it as much."

    In the meantime, pack some ear plugs.

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Jeff Caplan, (817) 390-7760 jcaplan@star-telegram.com

  • #2
    Re: Cuban silences the Music

    I really love cuban, you gotta love this guy.
    *removed* Just keep politics and religion completely out of it, please.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Cuban silences the Music

      A proper experiment should go longer than one game. Give the audience time to adjust; it's a shell shock after so many years of so much noise. They'd start producing the noise themselves again over time. The NBA was hardly a tomb before they started playing all this stuff.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Cuban silences the Music

        Personally I hate all the music. But then again I hate it when people show up for anything other than the game. Which seems to happen a lot. So yeah to those people of course they want music. Sensory overload is what they're all about, and the enhance with alcohol abuse.

        I'd rather hear the activity on the court, God I miss that.
        House Name: Pacers

        House Sigil:



        House Words: "We Kneel To No King"

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Cuban silences the Music

          I'm sure all those fans who are able to afford only 1-2 games a year really appreciated being a guinea pig in Cuban's experiment.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Cuban silences the Music

            I just want the Cavs and Detroit PA Announcers to be silenced..

            who do I have to talk to about that....

            Why Not Us ?

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Cuban silences the Music

              Originally posted by Frank Slade
              I just want the Cavs and Detroit PA Announcers to be silenced..

              who do I have to talk to about that....
              Cuban assassins, I guess.

              ( points to anyone who gets that)

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Cuban silences the Music

                Originally posted by Shade
                Cuban assassins, I guess.

                ( points to anyone who gets that)
                The new documentary from that German guy about Cuba's secret service beying behind the murder of JFK?

                Not just some documentary maker btw. Also he's gone through the archives and spoken to some new "sources", haven't seen it yet, but it's on german tv tonight, so who knows I might watch it tonight (unlikely) or waite until it gets aired here (VERY likely).

                Regards,

                Mourning
                2012 PD ABA Fantasy Keeper League Champion, sports.ws

                2011 PD ABA Fantasy Keeper League Champion, sports.ws

                2006 PD ABA Fantasy League runner up, sports.ws

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Cuban silences the Music

                  Originally posted by Mourning
                  The new documentary from that German guy about Cuba's secret service beying behind the murder of JSK?
                  Just for that, you get two .

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Cuban silences the Music

                    Originally posted by btowncolt©

                    DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETROOOOIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTT BAAAAAAAAAASSSKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEETTBAAAAAAAAAAAAAL LLLLLLL!!!!!!!!
                    dont remind me.

                    Spurs PA anyone?

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Cuban silences the Music

                      Originally posted by Shade
                      Just for that, you get two .
                      2012 PD ABA Fantasy Keeper League Champion, sports.ws

                      2011 PD ABA Fantasy Keeper League Champion, sports.ws

                      2006 PD ABA Fantasy League runner up, sports.ws

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Cuban silences the Music

                        Originally posted by Diamond Dave
                        Personally I hate all the music. But then again I hate it when people show up for anything other than the game. Which seems to happen a lot. So yeah to those people of course they want music. Sensory overload is what they're all about, and the enhance with alcohol abuse.

                        I'd rather hear the activity on the court, God I miss that.
                        Very well put.

                        By eliminating EVERYTHING, Cuban's just being a smart-***.
                        “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill

                        “If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning.” - Catherine Aird

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Cuban silences the Music

                          No more music during games...During timeouts and other breaks, fine...but I want to hear squeaking!

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Cuban silences the Music

                            It would be nice to be able to converse with the person next to you about the game without having to shout. But, unfortunately, witht he ever dwindling attention spans these days they ahve to do something to keep the people focused. Maybe baseball needs more music.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Cuban silences the Music

                              Gradually decrease the music and extraneous artificial noise over several months or a year. Then step it back up to today's level. Everyone would be complaining about it.

                              It's how people get used to things -- gradually. The artificial noise was ramped up and people got used to it and now expect it.
                              Don't thank me, I'll kill ya.

                              Comment

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