Some PA Statistics

 

One of the best gamer and players I ever worked with, was a guy in Everquest, and he was retired from the SF Fire Department and a database expert. He had broken down all the "Enchanter" spells into the smithreens, and he was a deadly player! His wife played a Mage and she was just as deadly a player. You never wanted to play against them ... it was a guaranteed loss because he knew what numbers would be more useful and where.

 

I have no issue with statistics, except the sado-masochism that comes with it. That is ... the number is law, and you and I are nothing! The "interpretation" is only as valuable as the quality of the information and how it was "intended" to be used, and NOT what was (always) found.

 

Database or not, music always was, progressive or not, and these websites, never took off until AFTER 1990, with the Fido/Telnet stuff, so evaluations from before the days of the message base and its derivatives, that led to these websites 10 years later, would be an evaluation of people's memories and their favorite albums "then", and not always a reality that went all year round like it does now, and more folks can see it and vote. I doubt that the results would be "fair" to the artists, though I do not question that a sizeable percentage probably fits, even if it was not quite incorrect.

 

The fact, is/was that a lot more music was available in 1972/73/74 than later when 2 bands signed humungous money contracts for distribution that killed the innovation across the board in America and Europe. It left little room for smaller stuff, most of which went "underground", and into the "college circuit" and other venues. TODAY, you and I can easily say that most of them survived, however, for many years, they didn't!  This kinda reflects differently when people say that prog/progressive died in the 80's, which is a perception between the media explosion, and the eventual telnet/fido explosion that helped bring up these kinds of boards like PA and their database uses! But it leaves a 20 year area open in the middle that will always show "less", or "not as many", as the others.

 

I'm not sure that the mentioning of people's favorites in any year, is a good sentiment of the general "progressive" understanding and mood, and we are thinking that a database is just like a person, and that is not the case. I am one of those numbers as are you, but we do not agree with many of those years, that i did not vote for any of those albums! For it to be "right" and "fair", you and I would have to vote for ALL the years the database represented, and I think I have voted in NONE ... unless the three or four reviews I entered at PA are included. I only review the 4.5 and 5, and will not say anything bad about any albums otherwise in a review ... I don't see the point in hurting our beloeved "progressive" by saying something is bad and a copy ... in a REVIEW ... in the threads it is done for fun!