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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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Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

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  • Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

    The scene was crazy - the entire top level on the eastern end was bought out by a single Lithuanian basketball club. They arrived wearing matching shirts: Those in the top third wore yellow shirts, those in the middle third wore green and those on the bottom third wore red shirts making a huge human lithuanian flag. I would say that there were 2000-3000 people there with this single club all sitting together.

    I have to be honest with you - these folks were there to have a good time. And it was a little contagious. There was a charm and a spirit behind this solid pack of fans that reminded me of european football matches. Or at least of a wild NCAA crowd. It was great to see fans actually into things.

    To say these folks were enthusiastic is a gross understatement. They were doing the wave. Dozens of times. They were singing a national song. Clapping in unison. And they would go absolutely ape-**** at the most random times (usually when the Lithuanian guy from the Bulls ended up on the big screen - and he didn't even dress for the game).

    Then I started to get annoyed.

    After a while, their enthusiastic cheering and chanting had almost nothing to do with the game itself. They would chant while the hometown Bulls were shooting free throws (remember Chandler missing 2 in a row). They would begin a song after a foul. The would do the wave during timeouts.

    The bulls couldn't concentrate during most of the game - the strange timing of the crowd noise seemed to have them a little spooked.

    They also couldn't seem to get on the same page on who to root for. When Sarunas came into the game the noise was deafening. (And this was the sequnce of plays for him: 1) Gets picked HARD resulting in a Bulls basket - 2) Turns the ball over 3) loses his man again. 4) Misses a wide-open 16 footer. None of that reduced the Lithuanian contingency's excitement.

    When he hit his back-to-back 3's, the lady behind me asked her husband "why are they rooting for the other team now?" Her husband said "I don't think they really care that much about the Bulls." I turned around and told them that the guy that hit the baskets was Lithuanian.

    They half laughed: "HaHa. Oh ... Uh ... Okay."

    Around the start of the 4th quarter, things started to get a little out of control. The bulls pep squad or whatever you want to call them were using cannons to shoot wadded up t-shirts up into the upper decks. Some in the "flag zone" seemed to thing that throwing things was a GREAT idea. First came wadded bits of paper - then came souvenirs.

    My wife said "Holy ****. That paper airplane nearly hit the court!"

    And then it started. The paper airplanes were raining down, and the Lithuanian crowd was loving it. As an airplane got close to the court, the cheers would increase. Eventually, two airplanes mad it onto the court and I was mad as hell.

    Anyone here accidentally step on a piece of paper on a slick court? Anyone not get hurt when it happened?

    Now, does anyone remember a sort of nonsensical time out called by Carlisle just before our collapse? You might not know this. At the time, the Pacers were coming up the court and there were 2 paper airplanes on our side of the court. The refs didn't seem to notice.

    What was already a crazy situation suddenly found focus in the cheapest of ways. The big screen put up a "noise-o-meter" which is a fake way to get the crowd to cheer during an inbounds. The louder the crowd cheers, supposedly the higher the meter goes. Anyone who's been to a game knows that only little kids fall for this kind of thing. Well, little kids and Lithuanians. They completely erupted at the sight of this thing. You couldn't think during this noise.

    Someone took notice. I could hear the sound guy now: "What the hell? The noise-ometer WORKED?!?!? Let's try it again!"

    The bulls AV guy used the thing at least a dozen times in the last 8 minutes of the game. The most jarring thing was that suddenly the crowd noise was focused and timed with the events on the court. The Bulls got in rythm. No, not just in rythm. They got PUMPED! The Pacers on the other hand looked confused an bewildered.

    There is NO WAY our guys could have heard each other on the court. There is no way they could have heard anything from the bench. They were blowing plays, running into each other. It was chaos.

    As the game got closer and closer, the crowd got more into it as the rest of the stadium joined in with the flag brigade. I buried my head in my hands. I felt like someone punched me in the stomach. I really did feel like I was going to throw up.

    Now before any of our Lith members come on here and feel like what I had to say was an insult to the country of Lithuania: let me tell you this: They were Chicago people first and fore-most. And the "participation" of this crowd directly resulted in a Bulls win. The Pacers loss was a side effect. And I expected this crowd to root for the home team. I was just floored by the WAY they rooted.

    And to the admins: I would prefer that this post stay in the Pacers forum and stay open as long as possible. But if trash ensues, I don't mind those offending posts be moved elsewhere.

    Thanks.

    Go Pacers.
    “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

  • #2
    Re: Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

    You should have seen fans in Greece and Turkey, they are throwing coins into the floor. and when they play eachother, they might throw their friends into the floor.

    I'm from Israel, and our fans are not known for begin polite too. I was once sitting with this girl from Sweden in a match, and she was horrified by the fact we boo the other team when their players are introduced, and during the game. She said that's not sportsmanship. It never occured to me before, but it was kinda true (not that I stopped booing for a moment).

    Anyway, sorry you had this bad experience.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

      So funny - I was just off the block of seats occupied by the Lithuanian club. Your post mirrors what I was going to post almost identically. Except I would have added that the Lithunian women were gorgeous. Also, I'd say it was more like 4 thousand. Almost 1/3 of the upper deck!

      The noise-o-meter cheering was rock concert levels. It definitely affected play...

      Nobody was paying attention over there, and the noise was totally distracting. At the same time I was enjoying the enthusiasm and sideshow until we blew the lead.

      What a brutal game to attend.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

        So I take it the NBA Fan Code of Conduct doesn't apply in Chicago? Do they even have those retarded signs up any more?

        A couple weeks ago I had a fleeting thought of going to the game. Now I'm glad I didn't (even if my Bulls did win).

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

          Originally posted by grace
          Now I'm glad I didn't (even if my Bulls did win).
          This thing clearly isn't working...........

          PSN: MRat731 XBL: MRat0731

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

            They showed the Liths quite a few times on TV. However they did not seem to be too loud. Only when they were chanting for Saras.

            I'm pretty sure the whole situation must have blown the Bulls fans' minds.

            But throwing stuff onto the court?
            House Name: Pacers

            House Sigil:



            House Words: "We Kneel To No King"

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

              I love the enthusiasm of European fans.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

                They showed them on TV a few times and you could certainly tell that they were a distraction.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

                  So in other words the Pacers lost because of Saras and his fans

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

                    Originally posted by Unclebuck
                    So in other words the Pacers lost because of Saras and his fans
                    HAHAHA - no not really. The Pacers still lost the game.

                    And to be clear, the crowd seemed to like the Lith guy from the bulls more tha Saras.
                    “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


                    • #11
                      Re: Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

                      We were rooting for both teams, what do you think, that's one in a long while event, organized by lithuanian basketball club Zalgiris in Chicago. And those airplanes, well there're all kinds of people. And was it fun there, hell yeah it was.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

                        Originally posted by Ragnar
                        They showed them on TV a few times and you could certainly tell that they were a distraction.
                        you are funny!
                        btw, that should explain rather poor results of USA NT in recent competitions as all ot he arena was of a simmilar mood

                        the following image is from Lithuanian news board.

                        Thanks go to Audrius (c)

                        note how calm these people are! I suppose they were cheering for the Bulls and for Saras. Bulls are a team, Saras is a player. games are won by a team. so they wanted Saras to play and Bulls to win (or maybe they did not care much ). besides, they probably know by heart how many minutes Saras has got lately and this gives them no reason whatsoever to like the Pacers more than Bulls. besides, Bulls have Songaila..

                        and why did you mention the wave during the timeouts? we never make waves during the games, unless the home team is winning convincingly. timeouts are created for the waves..

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

                          It is known that this celebrating, expressive fanship does not exist in american basketball and as always, what is different from the known and familiar is mostly not accepted; it's like that everywhere. However, my perception is that fans should be just as loud and colorful as possible. It's sports, not opera, and I consider following the fan spectacle half the entertainment of any sports game I attend live.
                          I understand your reaction because this was new to you, but just like the shocked establishment grew to accept Elvis and his swinging hips, NBA watchers might actually have something to learn here.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

                            Originally posted by 3ballinhoop
                            It is known that this celebrating, expressive fanship does not exist in american basketball and as always, what is different from the known and familiar is mostly not accepted; it's like that everywhere. However, my perception is that fans should be just as loud and colorful as possible. It's sports, not opera, and I consider following the fan spectacle half the entertainment of any sports game I attend live.
                            I understand your reaction because this was new to you, but just like the shocked establishment grew to accept Elvis and his swinging hips, NBA watchers might actually have something to learn here.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Pacers/Bulls - What you didn't see on TV.

                              Originally posted by Kuziukas
                              We were rooting for both teams, what do you think, that's one in a long while event, organized by lithuanian basketball club Zalgiris in Chicago. And those airplanes, well there're all kinds of people. And was it fun there, hell yeah it was.
                              Oh, don't get me wrong. It was really entertaining until the line was crossed.

                              But you're wrong about the paper airplanes coming from "all kinds of people". The paper airplanes came from the Lithuanian section only. I'm certain of that. But also to be fair, I saw at least 5 of them being thrown,and it was mostly children throwing them.

                              I honestly wonder if I would have felt differently about the situation if the Pacers had won.

                              If I were part of that club, I would have had probably the best time ever at an NBA game. Part of me feels that the crowd should be that enthusiastic everywhere. It just needed help in following the actual game. It also needed help in following the common sense of not throwing things at the court. You'd think that after the brawl that wouldn't have to be said. The fact that it was another Pacers road game made it unforgivable.
                              “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

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