@TwiceBitten said:

None of this explains why Saturday of the fest is still the 3rd best show of all time ????

Whether it is that good or not, there’s an entire segment of the fan base that’s actually angry enough that the band could possibly play a show of such high quality today that they’re resorting to burning down a silly rating system. It’s awesome that the boys can still bring so much heat 40 years in that we have this kind of passion about it.

I think everything @paulj wrote is incredibly interesting. I also worry that by codifying the ratings system, we’re baking in a lot of a lot of rules about how you can properly enjoy Phish. The ratings are an incredibly helpful way to find great shows to listen to; taking them more seriously than that kind of discounts that people enjoy Phish for a ton of different reasons. >5% of reviews are potentially from fluffers - just clean out bots and maybe purge the most egregious review scores and call it a day?