I've decided to start the second moderate game shortly after the site update. The reason for this is selfish: I have way more time to listen in December than January.

I've also decided, instead of qualifying in the same manner as the first moderate game, to copy Moonbeam. We will all be voting films into the draw directly. There will be as follows:

25 albums from 501-1000
25 albums from 1001-1500
25 albums from 1501-2000
25 albums from 2001-2500
28 albums from 2501-3000 + bubblers

Voting will be done as follows: Everyone will have a week to list a #1 choice and #2 choice from each group. If there are fewer than 25/28 votes, all first choices will get in, then there will be random selection from second choices. If there are more than 25/28 votes, first anything that appears as somebody's first choice and somebody else's second choice will get in automatically, then there will be random selection among the rest.

Also, I'm imposing a rule that no single voter can nominate more than one album by the same artist.

Once the 128 are decided they will be split into four divisions of 32 albums by number of RYM ratings. This way, the more well known albums will be against each other and the less well known albums will be against each other. The benefit of this is it will allow voters with less time to listen to participate more easily, and it will guarantee a few less known albums get to the end.

Then, there will be a seeding round. Everybody will vote for up to 8 of their favorite albums from each division, and the albums with the most points will be seeded 1-8. The rest will be unseeded and placed in the draw randomly.

After that, it's single elimination.

This way, everybody gets their absolute favorites in, and the qualifying lasts two weeks instead of the nine planned.

Also, in this thread we are voting about eligibility rules. The rules are either...
A: All 128 albums that qualified in the first moderate game are ineligible.
B: Only the final 32 are ineligible.

So you can see the impact of this, the full draw from last year is available here:

http://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=329857&tclass=

The most popular albums that this will affect, which qualified but lost in the first two rounds last year, are:

The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles - Let It Be
The Replacements - Tim
U2 - Zooropa
Daft Punk - Discovery
The Postal Service - Give Up
The National - Boxer
REM - New Adventures in Hifi

I'd like Boxer in.

new adventures, tim and discovery are all in my top 100, but i do like the idea of a whole new set of albums. i'll vote A

Greg makes a good point, and since Boxer is only going to climb I'll go with A.

I didn't participate in the original moderate poll until the final 4, but do we really want the same albums again?

I don't know if I made it clear enough in the original post that there's supposed to be a vote about the eligibility rules in this thread.

A) All 128 albums that qualified last year are barred
B) Only the final 32 are

Counting my vote for A and guessing that Listyguy means to vote A (Correct me if I'm wrong), it's currently 4-0 for A.

I vote A as well. Can't wait for this game.