Announcement

Collapse

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.
See more
See less

NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

    Originally posted by Bball View Post
    Are you guys sure Sunday Ticket was always a Directv exclusive? I was thinking at one time it wasn't but I could be wrong.

    If anyone is having frequent reception issues with Directv in the rain or when the wind blows, you either have an obstructed view of the horizon or you dish is misaligned (or both). Your mount could've settled some or a bolt loosened (or never was tightened) or the installer didn't do a good job in the first place.

    I noticed I had started to get a little more rain fade than usual. I ASSUMED it was tree growth but then last fall I had a new roof put on and they took down the dish. So I reinstalled it myself and made sure everything was plumb and true and registering properly on the meters. Not only did that eliminate the increased rain fade I was seeing BUT it also made it so I hardly see rain fade at all, even in a deluge. So I know from experience that rain fade should be a fairly rare occurrence.
    I think it was always an exclusive thing:

    Currently, American satellite provider DirecTV has exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket in the United States until the contract expires at the end of the 2014-15 season.[1] Prior to the NFL's latest television deal, other satellite and cable providers were allowed to bid on the rights to carry NFL Sunday Ticket if they agreed to carry the NFL Network. However, DirecTV still won exclusivity for the package, bidding over $700 million a year to do so. This has long been one of DirecTV's selling points to consumers, and thus likely explains the large premium they pay for the privilege. Still, the NFL has indicated that another reason they accepted DirecTV's bid was to limit the availability of the product so that the television networks and especially their local affiliates would be protected. In particular, NFL Sunday Ticket viewers do not count towards local Nielsen ratings; thus offering NFL Sunday Ticket on cable might cost CBS and Fox affiliates millions of dollars in lost revenue from local commercial breaks (as opposed to national ads sold by the networks). In turn, affiliates help subsidize the networks' programming costs.

    On March 23, 2009, it was announced that DirecTV paid $4 billion to extend its exclusive contract for NFL Sunday Ticket until 2014.[1] The contract extension also calls for the establishment of an online version of NFL Sunday Ticket, for customers who cannot subscribe to DirecTV by 2012 as well as a separate NFL Network-produced "Red Zone" channel to be carried on other American television providers.

    NFL Sunday Ticket was launched in 1994 and was available on both DirecTV (which had launched just months earlier) and on C-band and Ku-band satellites, for which the receiving dishes are larger in size.[citation needed] Within several years, the service became available on various cable systems in Canada as well.[citation needed]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_Sunday_Ticket

    Comment


    • #17
      Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

      Originally posted by Noodle View Post
      Wow, DirecTV must have urinated in your cheerios. I think somebody is jealous that DirecTV had a great idea that the pushed the NFL in to doing it, and your real problem is that you live in poor location that has limited your options. A personal problem really. Your claims about satellite prove you have no idea what you are talking about when it comes to how you get your Fios and cable broadcasts. Oh, that's right. They come from satellites. There are other options. Maybe you should research it.
      The way DirecTV and Cable are transmitted are fundamentally different, even if they both involve satellites.

      Travmil and others I am glad DirecTV works for you. My relative in Florida's signal becomes scrambled frequently during even minor storms, he has had DirecTV people come and look at it and they say there's nothing they can do. It is very weird that there is such a disparity in service for different customers.

      I realize I made the decision to live where I live. I love being within walking distance of both my job and world-class entertainment options. I think it is just stupid that this somehow affects my ability to watch out of market NFL games because only one of the country's largest television providers is able to provide out of market access to the country's most popular sport.

      I will probably end up buying a PS3 and going with that option.

      Comment


      • #18
        Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

        Originally posted by Strummer View Post
        I'm considering trying Game Rewind this year. It's only $35. Probably listen to the game live and then watch the archived broadcast the next day. And they have a condensed version so it shouldn't be too boring since I'll already know the outcome.
        link
        This is a great looking option. I'm busy, so its hard to dedicate so many hours to watching football. Thanks for adding this to the thread.

        Comment


        • #19
          Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

          I'm pretty sure if you live in an area where directv isn't a good choice you can get online access without a PS3.

          Comment


          • #20
            Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

            The best thing DirecTV did for itself was offer "free installation" of their product. More often than not the "Do it your-selfer" would not take the time and effort to install the dish correctly or just stop as soon as they got any signal and not fine tune that puppy into the high 90% range. Back in the 90's when they charged a boat load for installation I put up my own dish and never got the results of having them "professionally" installed when it came to rain. Right now it takes a pretty massive storm to cut my DirecTV service... The same storms that would make my old comcast cable block up and be pretty much unwatchable. (That being the reason I gave up on Comcast along with the price)
            ...Still "flying casual"
            @roaminggnome74

            Comment


            • #21
              Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

              Originally posted by Roaming Gnome View Post
              The best thing DirecTV did for itself was offer "free installation" of their product. More often than not the "Do it your-selfer" would not take the time and effort to install the dish correctly or just stop as soon as they got any signal and not fine tune that puppy into the high 90% range. Back in the 90's when they charged a boat load for installation I put up my own dish and never got the results of having them "professionally" installed when it came to rain. Right now it takes a pretty massive storm to cut my DirecTV service... The same storms that would make my old comcast cable block up and be pretty much unwatchable. (That being the reason I gave up on Comcast along with the price)
              Don't be so realistic. There are people who know more about the subject than those with real life testamonials and people with 13 years of satellite communications experience.

              Comment


              • #22
                Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

                Sitting at Ruby Tuesday right now... Been this way for 15 minutes....

                Comment


                • #23
                  Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

                  My power has gone out more times than my directv in the 8 years I've had it. And its out for a far less amount of time too.

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

                    Yep earlier tonight my DirecTV went out for about an hour during the rainstorm.

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

                      I wish I would've thought to check my Directv tonight during the rain storm.
                      Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.

                      ------

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

                      -John Wooden

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

                        Does Sunday Ticket have local lockouts like NBA League Pass?

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

                          Originally posted by Roaming Gnome View Post
                          The best thing DirecTV did for itself was offer "free installation" of their product. More often than not the "Do it your-selfer" would not take the time and effort to install the dish correctly or just stop as soon as they got any signal and not fine tune that puppy into the high 90% range. Back in the 90's when they charged a boat load for installation I put up my own dish and never got the results of having them "professionally" installed when it came to rain. Right now it takes a pretty massive storm to cut my DirecTV service... The same storms that would make my old comcast cable block up and be pretty much unwatchable. (That being the reason I gave up on Comcast along with the price)
                          Originally posted by Noodle View Post
                          Don't be so realistic. There are people who know more about the subject than those with real life testamonials and people with 13 years of satellite communications experience.
                          The friend I referenced above had it professionally done. Perhaps it was just a fluke, but once it started pouring the screen went blank..........

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

                            Originally posted by Shade View Post
                            Does Sunday Ticket have local lockouts like NBA League Pass?

                            lockouts?

                            I assume you mean blackouts I have heard friends talk about games being blacked out

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

                              Originally posted by Shade View Post
                              Does Sunday Ticket have local lockouts like NBA League Pass?
                              Yes. If the Colts get blacked out this year (and it sure sounds like it will happen), and you live in the local market, you can't watch the Colts. Not even if you have Sunday Ticket. Not even if you go to a bar to watch it. The best you can hope for is to watch the action periodically on RedZone.

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Re: NFL Sunday Ticket Rant

                                Originally posted by vapacersfan View Post
                                The friend I referenced above had it professionally done. Perhaps it was just a fluke, but once it started pouring the screen went blank..........
                                If I was more inclined I'd do some research.... but I'm kinda lazy right now
                                But there are two factors that might need to be considered.

                                #1 is the quality of the installer. If he doesn't care much more than the homeowner who stops as soon as he gets signal without tweaking it to find the max signal then results won't be maximized (obviously). This is true for no matter where you are located. Your installation is only as good as your installer. Even the good ones sometimes get in a hurry.

                                #2 is the one I'd need to research somewhat. That is the subject of 'footprint'. The satellites have a 'footprint' they are beaming to. Obviously if you're smack dab in the sweet spot of that footprint, and with a maximized dish install, then your results should be very favorable. What I don't know is where are the edges of the footprint and how much weaker the signal is as it radiates away from the sweetspot? I'd 'think' even if Florida was at the edge of the footprint that's its position being closer to the satellite would negate some of the potential signal attenuation issues of the aiming of the footprint to center the signal. But there again, maybe in trying to increase the footprint to the northern US borders they've compromised the satellite proximity gain in Florida to focus the footprint for farther north reaches? So I just don't know... IOW Maybe here in the central US we have something close to the maximum signal to deal with, and if we tweak our dishes appropriately, and if we have an unobstructed view of the satellites then maybe we can all but eliminate rain fade. But maybe some of you in a different part of the footprint don't have the same amount of signal we do here....

                                That is either a research question... or a question for a knowledgeable installer.

                                A 3rd point... and one I've not looked at for years.... It used to be that you could get larger aftermarket dishes for better gain. Not talking big C band dishes here... just something bigger than the factory offerings of Dish or Directv. Now that the dishes are oblong and aiming for multiple satellites at once I don't know that anyone is still in this market like they once were. At one time the larger dishes had multiple uses so it made some sense to also market to people (directv and dish subscribers) that needed/wanted the extra gain of a larger dish (like you might want on the fringe of the footprint, if you couldn't accept rain fade ever, or in an area that had some slight obstructions blocking line of sight to the satellites and limiting reception strength). Not sure anyone makes a specific aftermarket Dish or Directv now. These weren't something that you'd get from your standard Directv or DISH installer. They might not even know about these. These would be from places that sell to broadcasters and/or the hobbyist market.
                                Last edited by Bball; 09-08-2012, 04:48 PM.
                                Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.

                                ------

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

                                -John Wooden

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X