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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:

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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.

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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

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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:

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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.

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If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
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Indianapolis Star

Rule #6

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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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Official Butler Basketball Thread

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  • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

    Originally posted by Shade View Post
    UConn proved how important momentum is going into the tourney. If you get hot at the right time, it's damn near over for everyone who gets in your way, talent-level be damned.

    Kind of like the '02 Hoosiers, but they finally went cold against Maryland.
    Well, BOTH teams proved how important momentum is. The only team in the country that had won more consecutive games than UConn at the time of the title game was...Butler.

    Comment


    • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

      I didn't think it was terrible basketball, most of the way. I think it was a lot of terrible shooting on top of the good defense. But there were plenty of stretches where the play was fine up until the shot taken. I know Clark brought that up a couple of times last night.

      Comment


      • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

        It looked to me like a case of Butler being fatigued almost throughout the game, and UConn being a little less fatigued due to superior athleticism and happening to hit a few more shots.

        Both teams played their guts out, both teams played smothering defense, and the officials at times simply grabbed a seat ringside and watched the slugfest like the rest of us.

        I believe, however, that if these teams were to play a seven game series with the spacing of the early rounds of the NBA playoffs between them (two or three days apart), that Butler would likely win the series due to their better basketball IQ overall, but only if the officials call the game just a little closer than they did last night. I am all for "letting them play", but that was a little much even for me, and both sides took advantage of what the officials allowed.

        Comment


        • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

          Butler just could not hit a shot....unbelievable
          Larry Bird and Ryan Grigson- wasting the talents of Paul George and Andrew Luck

          Comment


          • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

            Originally posted by Jared Sullinger View Post
            Horrible championship game and Butler's performance was embarrassing. In fact, I'd say it was so bad that it almost erases all of the feel-good vibes from the past two seasons. 12-64. Wow.

            A really weak year for college basketball. Butler had no business being in the championship game and UConn may be the least talented National Champion since I don't know when.
            Butler had no business being in the championship game are you serious?? Still Salty about those Buckeyes losing to those Cats I guess.
            Larry Bird and Ryan Grigson- wasting the talents of Paul George and Andrew Luck

            Comment


            • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

              http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketb...its_way_040511

              A truly great article, about a truly great team.

              Originally posted by Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports
              By Dan Wetzel
              Yahoo! Sports

              HOUSTON – Shawn Vanzant sat in the corner of the Butler locker room, sobbing, his teammates said, at an almost uncontrollable level. Next to him was Matt Howard, a towel draped over his head, the tears coming just as hard.

              Together, the two seniors had shot 3 for 23, an absolutely abysmal, crushing performance in the biggest game of their lives. Connecticut was outside clipping the national championship nets. In here it was just hell, the aftermath of a great team gone bad – 12-of-64 shooting, a record-low 18.8 percent from the floor, losing 53-41, the fewest total points in a title game since the shot clock was invented.

              Vanzant thought it was his fault. Howard felt no better.

              And that’s when Ronald Nored, eyes red and tear-filled as well, noticed his teammates, got up, crossed the locker room and reminded everyone what this entire pursuit is about.

              He pulled Shawn Vanzant up off his stool and hugged his friend, physically and emotionally attempting to lift him out of his depression.

              After a few seconds, Nored stepped over to Howard and did the same. And soon enough, his teammates followed. One after the other, from the freshmen to the managers, from the benchwarmers to the starters, every last Butler Bulldog was taking a moment to remind each other, particularly those bottomed-out seniors, that this was about a lot more than some basketball game.

              “It [was] hard for me to watch; it’s hard for me to talk about,” coach Brad Stevens said of the scene, his voice catching and his eyes watering behind his glasses.

              “But it’s the best part of the story.”

              The story of Butler, the one that’s captured underdog hearts for two consecutive NCAA tournaments, was always about a group finding a way to be better than its individual parts. The Bulldogs were a family, they said. They were a brotherhood, they reminded. They believed they could reach back-to-back NCAA title games when there was no logical reason to think such a thing was possible.

              This is what all kinds of teams say, of course. And it’s easy to be a family when the shots are falling and victories are piling up and you’re shocking the world night after night. It’s another when you take the grandest stage in college basketball and proceed to experience a failure of historic proportions.

              Butler hit just 3 of 31 shots inside the arc. It made just six baskets in each half. At one point, the Bulldogs missed 13 in a row. They clanked open shots and blew gimmes they make in their sleep. As much credit as the long-armed Huskies’ defense deserves, in the back of every Bulldogs’ mind was the thought that they gave this away by playing the worst game of their lives at the worst possible moment.

              “All the people who played in the game think they let us down,” Stevens said. “And that’s ridiculous.”

              That’s also when everything gets tested. Butler blew it and that’s when fingers tend to get pointed and playing time gets questioned and selfishness can rise up. If only he had made that lay-up. If only he had knocked down that open jumper.

              “It’s very easy to just think about yourself and be frustrated in the situation,” Howard said.

              Instead, the Bulldogs showed all the talk was real. They did it one hug after the next. One whispered “I love you” after another. One pat on the back and look into the eye and honest bit of concern. The harder some cried, the harder the rest worked to ease the pain.

              Stevens stood in that locker room, took it all in and saw the kind of miracle for which coaches strive – collective support in the lowest and rawest of moments. Kids caring about kids. Perspective and purpose on display. It may not get you a clipped net, but that’s some kind of championship in itself.

              “Hard, hard to put into words,” Stevens said, his voice trailing a bit.

              “It’s probably the great thing about sports,” assistant coach Matthew Graves said.

              Nored said he never hesitated. Once he noticed Vanzant in such a state, the game didn’t matter. Only his friend did.

              “That’s what we’re here for, we’re here for each other,” Nored said. “In the big picture, who really cares about basketball? It’s about the guys in this locker room. I wanted Shawn to know we don’t really care that his shot didn’t go in; we care about him.”

              Howard, just a half-hour later, could only marvel at the entire thing. Butler had come to win the title on Monday, but when he gathered the team pregame in the tunnel, he told everyone to forget what was at stake.

              “Don’t think about the national championship,” he shouted. “This is our last time playing together.”

              With that, the Bulldogs broke huddle and sprinted out into the dome.

              A couple hours later, his message meant more than ever. The national championship was gone. The appreciation of playing together was not. He couldn’t hide under that towel after the game. His teammates wouldn’t let him.

              “[They] come over and give you a hug and tell [you] how much [they] love [you] and appreciate [you] and that is what this team is about,” Howard said. “It’s really uplifting because no matter the result, they want to be a part of this team and that is all that’s on their mind. They want to pick you up.

              “It’s a special group. That’s the only reason we’ve been able to do what we have.”

              They talk a lot about the “Butler Way” around here, although no one has a specific definition of it. Mostly it’s about being selfless, not caring who gets the points or the headlines or the accolades. Here on the night of a bitter, bitter defeat, Brad Stevens was reminded it can mean a whole lot more than that.

              “You know if someone has to go 12 of 64 and lose that game and do it that way,” he said, “these guys have the character to handle that.”

              The game had been a nightmare. The embarrassment of all those misses will linger. The frustration of so many good players failing to make simple shots will haunt them.

              But it won’t happen alone. Not with these guys. Not after Ronald Nored hugged Shawn Vanzant in the corner of that locker room and just wouldn’t let go.

              Comment


              • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

                Originally posted by Mr_Smith View Post
                Butler had no business being in the championship game are you serious?? Still Salty about those Buckeyes losing to those Cats I guess.
                Much moreso about the Cats victory after the Ohio State game.
                "I had to take her down like Chris Brown."

                -Lance Stephenson

                Comment


                • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

                  Originally posted by Jared Sullinger View Post
                  Horrible championship game and Butler's performance was embarrassing. In fact, I'd say it was so bad that it almost erases all of the feel-good vibes from the past two seasons. 12-64. Wow.

                  A really weak year for college basketball. Butler had no business being in the championship game and UConn may be the least talented National Champion since I don't know when.
                  Get out of here with that nonsense.

                  Even without winning a championship, what Butler has done the last 2 years is in the conversation of greatest back-to-back seasons in college basketball history.

                  Comment


                  • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

                    Originally posted by Mackey_Rose View Post
                    Get out of here with that nonsense.

                    Even without winning a championship, what Butler has done the last 2 years is in the conversation of greatest back-to-back seasons in college basketball history.
                    Easy there, tiger. Among the greatest back-to-back tournament runs in college basketball history? Sure. Most unlikely back-to-back title game participants? Sure. Greatest back-to-back seasons in college basketball history? Wouldn't go that far. It is a great story but off the top of my head I can think of a couple of seasons that were better than Butler's runs: Florida's b2b titles, UNLV in the early 90s, Duke in the early 90s, UCLA when they dominated the sport in the 60s and early 70s, Indiana in the mid 70s, etc.

                    Comment


                    • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

                      Originally posted by cdash View Post
                      Easy there, tiger. Among the greatest back-to-back tournament runs in college basketball history? Sure. Most unlikely back-to-back title game participants? Sure. Greatest back-to-back seasons in college basketball history? Wouldn't go that far. It is a great story but off the top of my head I can think of a couple of seasons that were better than Butler's runs: Florida's b2b titles, UNLV in the early 90s, Duke in the early 90s, UCLA when they dominated the sport in the 60s and early 70s, Indiana in the mid 70s, etc.
                      Butler being Butler is what puts it in the conversation.

                      Florida might have won two straight titles, but they did it as a huge state school from the SEC. It was a great achievement, but not entirely surprising. UNLV is like the anti-Butler. Duke, UCLA, and Indiana are three of the greatest college basketball programs in history. They should do those kind of things.

                      Butler should not, yet they did.

                      Comment


                      • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

                        Originally posted by Mackey_Rose View Post
                        Butler being Butler is what puts it in the conversation.

                        Florida might have won two straight titles, but they did it as a huge state school from the SEC. It was a great achievement, but not entirely surprising. UNLV is like the anti-Butler. Duke, UCLA, and Indiana are three of the greatest college basketball programs in history. They should do those kind of things.

                        Butler should not, yet they did.
                        I agree. That's why I said as far as it being an incredible story it is right there in the conversation.

                        I'm extremely interested to see how Butler does next year without Howard (and maybe without Mack, although I think he should go back for his senior year).

                        Comment


                        • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

                          http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118034998

                          Monday's primetime action was dominated by a pair of live telecasts, with ABC rolling early behind ''Dancing With the Stars'' and CBS dominating later in the evening with the men's NCAA basketball championship game.
                          Preliminary estimates from Nielsen are murky for the hoops action on CBS, but Connecticut's victory over Butler averaged a 6.7 rating/16 share in adults 18-49 and 18.7 million viewers overall on the CBS stations from 9:30 to 11 p.m. These numbers are subject to significant revision since they don't include the end of the game or incorporate viewing in the West. It does appear that this year's game could be down by 10% or more vs. last year's thrilling Duke-Butler title game, but should out-rate both 2009 and 2008.

                          Comment


                          • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

                            Sounds like a lot of bitter people around here. Anyone that can't appreciate what these kids have done over the last 2 years just doesn't get it.

                            It's about a lot more than basketball.

                            Comment


                            • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

                              Not really sour grapes on my part (maaybe a tiny bit), can someone tell me what Calhoun did to be suspended 3 games next season and what type disciplinary action has been taken against UConn and why? I know Kravitz alluded to it but I haven't seen or heard what the skinny is.
                              Ever notice how friendly folks are at a shootin' range??.

                              Comment


                              • Re: Official Butler Basketball Thread

                                This sums it up pretty well. It's just the NCAA turning the other direction for a major program. Again.

                                http://msn.foxsports.com/collegebask...ketball-022211

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