As the update is here, here we go.

Best Moderately Acclaimed Album is a voting game where only albums ranked under 500 and bubblers are eligible. There will be a single elimination draw with 128 albums, and now it's time to pick them.

Send me an ordered list of ten nominations at AMModeratePoll@gmail.com. Please include the artist name and album name as they appear on AM, as well as the rank.

You have until midnight ET on Sunday, December 5th to make nominations.

I will select nominations as follows:
First I will go through and pick all the first place albums
Then, I will go through and pick all the second place albums
Then, the third place albums, etc, until the draw fills up.

No more than 25 will be picked ranked 1000 or higher, no more than 50 ranked 1500 or higher, no more than 75 ranked 2000 or higher, and no more than 100 ranked 2500 or higher, so make sure you spread your picks out through the entire list. If after one week the draw is not filled, there'll be a first come-first serve round posted on the forum.

Additional rules:
-No one person can nominate more than one album by the same artist
-No albums that qualified for the first Moderate game are eligible.

To give people time to listen to as many of the albums as they have time for, the actual voting won't start until January.

Here's a list of the albums which qualified for the first draw, and are thus ineligible:

!!! - Myth Takes
Aimee Mann - Bachelor #2
Aimee Mann - Whatever
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Annie - Anniemal
Beach Boys - Smiley Smile
Beastie Boys - Hello Nasty
Beck - Midnite Vultures
Beck - Mutations
Beck - Sea Change
Belle and Sebastain - Tigermilk
Belle and Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab Strap
Belle And Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen
Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man - Out Of Season
Betty Davis - They Say I'm Different
Bill Evans - Conversations With Myself
Brigette Fontaine - Comme A La Radio
Bright Eyes - Lifted
Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
Bruce Springsteen - Live 1975-1985
Bruce Springsteen - The Wild, The Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle
Cat Stevens - Teaser and the Firecat
Cheap Trick - Cheap Trick
Chuck Berry - Chuck Berry Is On Top
Curtis Mayfield - There's No Place Like America Today
Daft Punk - Discovery
Dennis Wilson - Pacific Ocean Blue
Depeche Mode - Violator
Eels - Blinking Lights and Other Revelations
Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record
Elliot Smith - Either/Or
Elliot Smith - Figure 8
Elliot Smith - XO
Ennio Morricone - Once Upon A Time In The West
Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
Fountains of Wayne - Fountains of Wayne
Gorillaz - Demon Days
Interpol - Antics
Jerry Lee Lewis - Live At The Star Club
Joanna Newsom - The Milk Eyed Mender
Johnny Cash - Unchained
Kings Of Convenience - Quiet Is The New Loud
Leonard Cohen - New Skin For The Old Ceremony
Lou Reed - The Blue Mask
Low - Things We Lost In The Fire
Madonna - Madonna
Marvin Gaye - Here, My Dear
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
Milton Nascimento & Lo Borges - Clube De Esquina
Modest Mouse - The Moon And Antarctica
Neil Young - Zuma
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Nico - Chelsea Girl
Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom
Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
Pavement - Brighten The Corners
Pavement - Terror Twighlight
Pavement - Wowee Zowee
Pink Floyd - Animals
Pink Floyd - Meddle
PJ Harvey - Is This Desire?
Postal Service - Give Up
Prince - Controversy
Queens Of The Stone Age - Lullabies To Paralyze
REM - Fables Of Reconstruction
REM - Life's Rich Pageant
REM - New Adventuers In Hifi
Ry Cooder - Paris, Texas
Simon And Garfunkel - Sounds Of Silence
Sleater-Kinney - Call The Doctor
Sleater-Kinney - One Beat
Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Spoon - Gimme Fiction
Spoon - Kill The Moonlight
St Etienne - So Tough
Sufjan Stevens - Greetings From Michigan, The Great Lakes State
Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
Super Furry Animals - Radiator
Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World
System Of A Down - System Of A Down
Talking Heads - Speaking In Tongues
The Beatles - Help!
The Beatles - Let It Be
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
The Boredoms - Super ae
The Byrds - Turn, Turn, Turn
The Cars - Heartbeat City
The Cranberries - Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?
The Cure - Faith
The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
The Dandy Warhols - Come Down
The Decemberists - Her Majesty, The Decemberists
The Decemberists - Picaresque
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
The Delgados - The Great Eastern
The Divine Comedy - Casanova
The Drive By Truckers - Decoration Day
The Flaming Lips - Transmissions From The Satellite Heart
The Flaming Lips - Zareika
The Go Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
The Hives - Tyrannosaurus Hives
The Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America
The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday
The Killers - Hot Fuss
The Knife - Silent Shout
The Millennium - Begin
The Monks - Black Monk Time
The National - Alligator
The National - Boxer
The Replacements - Tim
The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
The Smashing Pumpkins - Adore
The Strokes - Room On Fire
The White Stripes - Icky Thump
They Might Be Giants - Flood
They Might Be Giants - They Might Be Giants
Tom Petty - Full Moon Fever
Tom Petty - Wildflowers
TV On The Radio - Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes
U2 - Zooropa
Various Artists - O Brother, Where Art Thou
Vince Guaraldi - A Charlie Brown Christmas
Warren Zevon - Exciteable Boy
XTC - Oranges and Lemons
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell

Just a reminder, I'd prefer it if you include the AM position of the albums you nominate in your mail. Because I'll need to know the positions in order to sort out the nominations at the end of the week, and otherwise I'll have to manually look up every album nominated.

I submitted my ten. I can't wait see what albums other people nominated. With the full 128 from last time eliminated, this might be the most unpredictable AM game ever.

I just sent my top 10 as well :)

Although some of my favourites (Pacific Ocean Blue, The Life Pursuit, Teaser and the Firecat, Demon Days, Animals, Meddle, Help!, Let It Be) are ineligible this time around, I am glad that albums that were in the last competition won't be competing. It certainly does make the game more interesting!

Got 7 lists so far, and 69 different albums, though a disproportionate number from 501-1000.

You can take solace in the fact Pacific Ocean Blue was the runner up last year. It only lost to In The Aeroplane Over The Sea in the finals.

I'm looking forward to seeing the nominations of some of the regulars with more eclectic collections. nj, Harold, etc.

One album managed to make two list, huh?

Does anyone have the full spreadsheet for the 2009 album poll? I'm realizing that the votes are going to be too spread out to base the seedings on the votes, so I want to base the seedings on the album poll.

One more thing I want to mention. At the rate things are going, the 25 slots allocated for albums from 501-1000 are probably going to fill up in round 2 or 3 of the selection process. If anyone who's already submitted a list wants to redo their list with this in mind, you're free to.

(I don't want anyone to feel cheated if they submit a list with 7 or 8 from the 501-1000 list then only get 2 or 3 in the draw.)

It's described in the top post. I start with everybody's #1 choices, then go to #2 choices, then #3 choices, etc, until the draw is filled.

So, say there are 20 nomination ballots, and after I get through the first round, the albums nominated are distributed:
501-1000: 15
1001-1500: 4
1501-2000: 1

Then, suppose the second choices are distributed:
501-1000: 14
1001-1500: 3
1501-2000: 2
2501-3000 or Bubbler: 1

Then, 10 out of the 14 from 501-1000 are randomly chosen, and all the rest get in directly.

So in other words, maybe if you really want an album from the 501-1000 to make the cut, you should put it right at the top.

It's hard to predict how many nomination ballots there will be, so in general, you should pick the ones you most want to get in and put them in the top few spots. There might end up being 7 or 8 getting in per person, and there might end up being only 4 or 5.

I just sent mine! This is going to be cool! =D

Shit, i forgot to send with the placements, wait! i'll resend!

I sent mine !

Just a reminder, 32 hours left for nomination.

I decided to move the deadline up about six hours to 6PM my time (Which I believe is 11PM GMT), to give myself time Sunday evening to generate the draw.

I have received 17 nominations from:
Myself
Jackson
Greg
Nassim
Listyguy
Henry
Daniel
Bradley E Green
Schwah
Henrik
KingofTonga
Beef Supreme
Moonbeam
Jonathon
nj
HRS
Romain

I'll take this opportunity to make a final plea to individuals who have heard a lot of albums most of the people here haven't to send in nomination ballots.

Unless anybody objects, and is currently trying to get their nomination in by the deadline 43 minutes from now, I think I'll close nominations and start tabulating, because now is when I have time.

The albums will be sorted into four divisions by exposure. Originally I was going to go by ratings on Rate Your Music, but then I realized the population of that site isn't representative, and doing so would result in Rythym Nation 1814 being in the fourth division, among other things. So instead I'm using google hits. Either "Artist name" + "Album name" or in the case of self titles or albums with a lot of hits that have nothing to do with the album, "Artist name" + "First song name".

I've decided, unless somebody still has the spreadsheet for the 2009 album poll, not to have seedings and seed within the divisions randomly.

I've also decided, anyone who doesn't get a pick in gets all their other picks slid up by one, to try to even out the amount of inclusions for each ballot. (I've also checked, and there were 26 501-1000 albums nominated in the first two rounds, so one unlucky person isn't going to get their second choice.)

The draw will be unveiled soon, and voting won't start until January. That way, anyone who wants to do some listening first has a lot of time to do so.