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

Pacers eventually to end up in Sacramento?

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 13
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous 1 3 8 9 10 11 12 13 template Next
  • #181
    Re: Pacers eventually to end up in Sacramento?

    I want to start this off by saying that my current ticket rep (who I’ve had now for two years) is a great guy to work with. Under no circumstance is anything I’m about to say reflect poorly on him as he has been a very good and active rep.

    I will say that he has had to unfairly put up with my ire at the Pacers organization both last year and this year, but he has been patient with me and he has come through so I would suggest that if you have had a problem in the past and used to have season tickets you should give him a call.

    However I have a very similar experience to Brad888 oddly enough we had the same exact ticket rep. Eddie Bird.

    As I’ve said I have had tickets in some capacity since 1985, not always full season but I’ve always had a ticket package of some nature. Prior to two seasons ago I had never so much as had a fee drink from the Indiana Pacers.

    That is not hyperbole, hype or an exaggeration.

    However at the height of the Jim O’Brien era obviously the fan base stagnated and dried up so the ticket reps became much more pro active and customer oriented because prior to that, & this even pre dates Eddie Bird and goes back to every ticket rep I had prior to that, my only contact with my ticket rep in a give year was during the summer they would call me if I hadn’t already re upped for the following season and ask me if I was going to. I was never given a discount or anything, they just asked if I intended to re up.

    Me being young and not knowing any better at the time never understood that it was incumbent on me to initiate some form of negotiation about my tickets. So I’ll take that blame there I guess I was supposed to know this (I don’t know how I was supposed to know this). My assumption was I bought a ticket I got a seat I watched the game and that was the end of our transactions.

    It wasn’t until I started seeing guys from here on the Digest who I either knew or knew of getting leather coats, hoodies, sweatshirts, ball caps, private player meetings, food & ticket upgrades like there was no tomorrow that I finally found out that for nearly 2 decades I was missing out on everything but the game.

    Even then early on I just smiled and thought “wow those guys are really lucky to have as good as ticket reps as they do”. But then after watching one guy I knew who had $6 tickets be upgraded to the 3rd row courtside seats for about the 5th time I just lost it. Then to fined out they were paying for some of his $12 parking for free that just sent me over the edge. Pay attention to what I said btw, he was paying $6 for his upper deck tickets and they were giving him $12 parking passes. In other words the Pacers were paying him to come to the games let alone upgrading him to tickets that I could never even dream of having.

    BTW, let it be known here I do not fault nor hold any ill will towards the guys (there were more than one) who were getting all of these benefits. I totally blame both myself and my at the time Pacers ticket reps.

    I’m not a rich person by any means and believe me when I tell you that during the 80’s & 90’s I had to make a lot of hard choices with how to cut out things just to continue going to Pacer games. I say that to say that over the years I spent thousands of dollars on Pacer tickets, that’s not a brag btw it’s just a fact and I felt like they were crapping in my face for me not understanding that I needed to initiate a discussion.

    Then as Brad888 says they started selling tickets around me for less than ½ of what I was paying. For several years I had four tickets in the club level and my price was $107 per ticket. They then started selling tickets up there for somewhere around $50.

    To say I felt betrayed is an understatement. Again I know someone is going to say “hey why didn’t you just ask”. I’ll freely admit I didn’t know that I was supposed to.

    Between that, the fact you could now see all but 10 games a year on fox sports (now you can see all of them), Jim O’Brien and frankly my hurt feelings I sadly let loose one day on my new ticket rep.

    They did go out of their way to make me happy that year and last year they went above and beyond as well. This year it has been less but I understand that this is due to good ticket sales and a new philosophy from the new overall ticket manager that they wouldn’t be giving out so many freebies.

    Whew I’m not sure why I wrote all of that but reading Brad888’s post got my blood boiling again.

    I do believe that giving out deeply discounted tickets on occasion is fine but it does cheapen the product and if you do it to much then you are really peeing on the people who faithfully paid for season tickets.


    Basketball isn't played with computers, spreadsheets, and simulations. ChicagoJ 4/21/13

    Comment

    • #182
      Originally posted by billbradley View Post
      Pacers use BLF rent free, get all revenue from every event, local parking, and now don't have to pay for upkeep. On top of that, most of the concession workers are volunteers. I'm not sure many cities can offer all that. There is no way the Pacers are losing money.
      Which concession stands in BLF are run by volunteers? Are you confusing it with Lucas Oil - where, by the way, there is still payment for the workers, it's just that it goes to the charity?

      I know the stands I go to are staffed by employees paid by Levy, because I talk to many of them about how attendance affects staffing and whether they have work.

      Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
      BillS

      A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
      Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...

      Comment

      • #183
        Re: Pacers eventually to end up in Sacramento?

        Originally posted by BillS View Post
        Which concession stands in BLF are run by volunteers? Are you confusing it with Lucas Oil - where, by the way, there is still payment for the workers, it's just that it goes to the charity?

        I know the stands I go to are staffed by employees paid by Levy, because I talk to many of them about how attendance affects staffing and whether they have work.

        Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
        Same at BLF, volunteering for charities. I asked three people on Wednesday because I couldn't believe when a friend told me. The taco place and two of the people from the stands that have all the same thing. Each person said the majority of people working at concessions were volunteers. I'm just relaying what I was told. I guess it's possible that they were mistaken, but 3 for 3? Also keep in mind I didn't think there were ANY volunteers, I though it was crazy which is why I asked.

        Comment

        • #184
          Re: Pacers eventually to end up in Sacramento?

          There are times where I can feel Brad888's pain, then again I was schmoozed and coddled by the ticket reps. I don't know why me, that is a REALLY good question. However, out of the past 4 years I have had 4 different reps. It's hard to get a promise fulfilled by someone who is no longer with the organization.

          Now I don't spend the most money on tickets (however, that cannot be said about merchandise), but over the course of the JOB era I was given incentives, deals, yada yada to renew for the next miserable season. We were given an opportunity to spend a day at Larry's Eagle Ranch in Brown County, Varsity Club meals, Legends Passes, and other junk. I think at the end of the 2008-2009 season I spent the entire last half after the ASB in the lower level just for renewing.

          Now I am not going to say I deserved all of those things, and yes, I think I was paying $7 a ticket at one point. (I probably still am for Bobcats and Pistons games.) But I'll like to see someone who has paid for their tickets for 7 years straight and has been able to drive 140 miles round-trip and has only missed two to three games since 2008. So sitting through the JOB years were some form of self-punishment even though I was high on the Dunleavy Kool-Aid for a while.

          I got spoiled. Now we're winning. I still can't complain. Last year was the first time I've had a price increase on my season tickets in the balcony. It wasn't that big of a difference.

          During the offseason I did have a mild panic. The drive and time and money for travel to and from the games has caught up with me, regardless of how little in ticket money I pay. I've put a ton of miles on my new car and obviously gas is still expensive. They have basically subsidized my second ticket (last year for Area 55, this year G2 Zone) for the past two years. I was about to just forget it and just do 5-10 games a season al a carte. I've been picking games out of the schedule to hand over my ticket(s) to a friend and head home instead.

          I think the point I am trying to make is that I have been one of the lucky ones, or I've just asked for so much they've basically said, "Well, if it will shut him up...". And now that we are winning, I'm so much more grateful. I feel for Brad and we've discussed this personally many times. Peck, I just don't really care that much about so he's on his own.

          Now only if I could get free parking I'd be good to go. HA!
          Last edited by duke dynamite; 02-04-2013, 09:54 AM.

          Comment

          • #185
            Re: Pacers eventually to end up in Sacramento?

            Originally posted by billbradley View Post
            Same at BLF, volunteering for charities. I asked three people on Wednesday because I couldn't believe when a friend told me. The taco place and two of the people from the stands that have all the same thing. Each person said the majority of people working at concessions were volunteers. I'm just relaying what I was told. I guess it's possible that they were mistaken, but 3 for 3? Also keep in mind I didn't think there were ANY volunteers, I though it was crazy which is why I asked.
            I can understand money going to charities. The fact the Pacers coordinate that is great, but who is really making the donation? The Pacers are still getting a service for their money.

            Comment

            • #186
              Re: Pacers eventually to end up in Sacramento?

              Originally posted by BlueNGold View Post
              I can understand money going to charities. The fact the Pacers coordinate that is great, but who is really making the donation? The Pacers are still getting a service for their money.
              It is great, but I'm just saying they save a ton of money doing this. Cheaper labor and tax right off. Even nights like the Pistons games, concessions do very well. Pacers have volunteers working the game, the city takes care of BLF costs and rent. And they get all revenue from parking and all events in BLF. How can you lose? Pacers aint leavin' Indy.

              Comment

              • #187
                Re: Pacers eventually to end up in Sacramento?

                I think its half and half in terms of charity. I know there is at least one "supervisor" per concession stand that kind of oversees everything. Also, pretty sure the cooks are not volunteer.
                There is no NBA player named Monte Ellis.

                Comment

                • #188
                  Re: Pacers eventually to end up in Sacramento?

                  Originally posted by boombaby1987 View Post
                  I think its half and half in terms of charity. I know there is at least one "supervisor" per concession stand that kind of oversees everything. Also, pretty sure the cooks are not volunteer.
                  That's what my friends and I were thinking. If you include the cooks it's about 50/50.

                  Comment

                  • #189
                    Re: Pacers eventually to end up in Sacramento?

                    This is about to be the worst attended game of the year. Check out the seat chart if you want. . Doesn't make any sense.
                    There is no NBA player named Monte Ellis.

                    Comment

                    • #190
                      Re: Pacers eventually to end up in Sacramento?

                      They don't even attend Hawks games in Atlanta. Dunno why.
                      "Danny Granger is one of the top players in the league. To move Danny, you better get a lot back." - Larry Bird

                      Comment

                      Previous 1 3 8 9 10 11 12 13 template Next
                      Working...
                      X