But I have no problem with soft boundaries so long as they are predefined. However, even a soft boundary has a limit. Mag 3-5 is a soft boundary, a range of expected values. But 5.1 is outside the boundary.

My best fit program uses value ranges too. The best fit for distance is anything up to twice the predicted radius, for example. Mag has a 0.5 above and below, etc.

Surely you wouldn't say (having predicted a 6.5 in LA tomorrow) that a 4.2 in Singapore is a HIT???

Roger