Ah, now the debate gets interesting. To fret or not to fret the 5th...that is the question.

Ken Perlman included tunes with fretted 5th string tabs in some of his banjo books (more info on his web site: http://www.kenperlman.com/) and he could actually play them, too. I could never figure out how to do that so I made believe that fretting the 5th was somehow a violation of tradition. Of course, at some level, having a 5th string is a violation of tradition.