In the recent past, we had quite a few polls in this forum. More details can be found here.

Besides the 'always-open polls' we currently have the ongoing initiatives 'Hall Of Acclaim' (HOA) and 'A Yearly Chart On A Daily Basis' (AYCOADB).

As we get nearer to the end of the year, I was wondering whether it is time for some new polls again. I can imagine and I hope we will have the annual 'Pazz & Jop' poll again, moderated as ever by Rocky Raccoon. But what about the all-time favorite polls? There were albums and songs polls in 2005 and about a year ago, and some time later this year we did the artists poll.

Would it be interesting to do the albums and songs polls again in the coming months? I see more advantages than disadvantages:

- forum members, that participated before, might be saturated and feel uncomfortable doing these polls again.
+ we are a year further, so we have more albums and more songs to choose from
+ forum members, that did not participate before, have their chance to do so this time.
+ forum members, that participated before, have hopefully listened to some new stuff and might have broadened or changed their musical taste a bit.
(do I need to continue )

I volunteer to moderate either one or both of these polls this time. I would do it similar to how Anthony and Moonbeam did it last year. And my preferred timing would be: Albums poll in December and songs poll in January. If somebody else would like to moderate as well, don't hesitate to say so.

Anyway, I am curious what your opinions are in this.

I like a lot but I think the polls that now is the time for all of the outstanding year-end lists. It is also in the running of albums and songs from the 80s.

I suggest waiting for the month of April 2009.

I think an album poll in early 2009 could be a fine thing.
we could do a songs poll in 2009-2010.

I'd be happy to manage the album forum, but I don't know if I'll have the time, with a full time job, 2 kids, a blog, reviews on other sites, and searching for a new job ...

i don't know about that but one album poll could be a fine thing.

Thanks for the first responses.

Yes, totally forgot about the 80's poll, to be continued next year with the 70's poll.

I'm also fine with albums poll around April 2009, and songs poll perhaps during fall, e.g. October 2009?

I have discovered many new albums since the last poll, so I am very interested by a new poll... even though I doubt that the results will change much.
I'm less interesting in a song poll, mostly 'cause my list will change much less.

Well... I like polls anyway !

I loved the albums poll last year and would be excited for a new one anytime!

I would love to do another Top 100 over Christmas time again. My list has definately changed a ton and I would like to see everyone elses list changes.

I'd love doing an albums poll sometime soon.

We all know polls are great and while I'm in grad school I couldn't run any, but if we want to stray from the general albums/songs polls for awhile, here are a few ideas:

-Best Music Videos
-Best Songs (like the Grammys where you vote more on lyrics)
-Best Lyricists
-Best Producers
-Best songs about the freakin' weekend

Or, and this could make total sense or no sense depending on who you are:

-Best Movies
-Best Books

It seems like there are a lot of film nerds here who came by way of TSPDT, so I think a best movies poll from music nerds could be pretty interesting. However, that does get a bit off topic from the forum's goal, so that one might be up for debate, though I think it'd be the best option.

You start a poll, I'll probably vote in it. But I'd rather see the general 'best ever' polls spread out a little more.

Maybe some AM version of the Grammies, where specific awards are voted on? (Only not corrupt and spineless?)

"-Best songs about the freakin' weekend"

I choked when I read that... and no, it wasn't on human liquids.

Personally, I find the albums poll to the most exciting and a lot easier to determine as opposed to song and artists...

What about a poll for greatest back to back albums?

I don't usually post here but I have been an interested observer, I might participate in an albums poll if you guys have one... I really like the format of how you guys do it... I'll hope for one

Taking your (mainly positive) reactions in consideration, and the fact that we will be quite busy with other things in december (lots of EOY lists, AM site update coming up and hopefully the 2008 Pazz & Jop poll is done again), I would suggest:
- to do the all-time favorite albums poll in March next year with the results posted early April.
- to consider doing the all-time favorite songs poll sometime around September, results in October.

If nobody objects, I could run the albums poll, similar to the way Anthony did last year. That would mean, that the voting period is the entire month March and the results are posted early April.

Feel free to organize other kinds of polls (e.g. the idea for the Grammy polls), where I would only participate, not moderate.

Rocky Raccoon, can we count on you moderating the Pazz & Jop poll again?

i think the best time to do pazz and job would be january '09
And maybe the seventies next year ? (as we're doing the eighties now)

I know I wouldn't mind doing all-time polls annually every January, I just worry that participation would fade. It's worth a shot though.

The 70's poll should definitely be on the agenda right after the 80's one is done. Then we can do the 60's and then we'll be ready for the 00's!

Or maybe when we're done with the 70's we should go to the 00's since everyone will be eager to sum up the decade. In that case I'd almost like to do the 60's first if we're jumping around.

I'd definitely be part of the "best albums" if you guys do it in March (although I liked Christmas because I'm off school but thats just me...).

Sure, I'll scrape together the annual AM P&J poll.

Great, Rocky!

Regarding the 70s, 60s and 00s poll: We discussed this about a year ago in the following thread:

http://pub37.bravenet.com/forum/3172289350/show/787612

See Stephan's (better known as Neoptolemos in those days) post at "Jan 3rd, 2008 - 8:28 PM" and a 48 minutes later Fred's post at "Jan 3rd, 2008 - 9:16 PM"

So, if this holds, LonesomePanda will be our host for the 70s poll next year.

And Fred's idea was to do 70s in '09, 60s in '10 and 00s in '11. Rationale is to let the 00s sink in first, but John's argument to do the 00s right after the decade is over makes sense too. Either decision is fine with me.

jem, you can still prepare your album list around Christmas and submit your list later in March.

The listening to and sorting of the favorite albums usually takes sometime, so if you have time around Christmas, go for it. And whatever the result is, should (hopefully) not change dramatically over a few months ...

Ya its not actually the making of the list because I pretty much already have that done, its the relaxing and enjoying the results part... but again its not that big of a deal and it will be a nice break from the papers I will be writing...