On July 1, 1996, almost 15 years ago, there was a similar debate on the Usenet newsgroup rec.music.phish, the "grandfather" of this forum.

Lauren Prior posted the following response to the suggestion of Scott Joplin to rate Phish concerts on the 1 to 10 scale, but to refrain from voting unless you had heard a lot of Phish shows in person or on tape.

Lauren said (all caps emphasis in original):

"WHO ARE YOU TO TELL NEW PHISHEADS TO REFRAIN FROM VOTING? IF THEY FEEL IT
WAS A 10, IT WAS A 10! ANYTHING LIKE THIS IS SUBJECTIVE AND THUS NOT
ACCURATE IN THE FIRST PLACE...SO YOU'RE CONDESCENDING ATTITUDE TOWARDS
NEWBIES IS NOT NEEDED.....

PLEASE REFRAIN FROM SAYING STUPID THINGS"

Read the original thread on the Google wayback machine: http://bit.ly/mwxmAH /> As the French say, "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose".

And, heeding the timeless verity of Lauren's advice, let us all now please refrain from saying stupid things, like all Phish shows are equally great. :-)

::ducks::