The idea is that you give a list of say ten prog albums, vote one, two or three (as required) off until you have one overall winner. This means you end up in the somewhat disconcerting position of having to vote off an album you really like in order to save an album you really, really like. A real "Sophie's Choice of Prog", huh? Hey, it's fun!

Anyway, to ensure that not just one album runs to the finish line (cough) Close to the what? (cough) it's usually subdivided into subgenres, so with that in mind, and assuming anyone is interested, can you submit your ideas, both for subgenres and for albums for those lists? I can think of, off the top of my nearly bald head, Symphonic Prog, Eclectic Prog, Prog Metal, Folk Prog, Neo Prog, Instrumental Prog (?), Space Prog, Psychedelic Prog (are they the same?), but I'm sure there are more. 

If anyone thinks this is a good idea, please post with your ideas and we'll see if we can get it going, though not until we have full lists. And if you don't think it's a good idea, then I hope something slightly unpleasant happens to you, like an onion falling on your head... 

Thanks.

TH

So, say round one is

Genesis Nursery Cryme

Camel Camel

Yes 90125

Rush A Farewell to Kings

Alphataurus s/t

Barclay James Harvest s/t

The Nice The Thoughts of yer man

Marillion Misplaced Childhood

IQ Tales from the Lush Attic

Twelfth Night Fact and Fiction

I then say vote two off, voting ends on day x.

The first person who votes says I vote Alphataurus and IQ off.

Depending on how many people vote albums off, those albums are then removed from the list, so you end up with eight "survivors", of which we then all have to vote off another two, until finally we're down to one. At the end of the whole thing, each subgenre may be matched against the others to come up with a final Prog Rock Album Survivor.

That make sense? If not, feel free to let me know what still worries you. It does sound slightly complicated, but it's not really, and it is a blast, or it can be, if enough people join in.

Does that sound about right, or am I even more confused than when we started? 

Queen - A Day at the Races

Saga - Generation 13

Susanne Sundfør - The Silicone Veil

Return to Forever - Romantic Warrior

Hawkwind - Levitation

Barclay James Harvest - Once Again

Moody Blues - Seventh Sojourn

Queensrÿche - Operation Mindcrime

Gentle Giant - Free Hand

Marillion - Clutching at Straws

Is that covering enough subgenres?

It's not 10 albums over a number of subgenres; it's 10 albums PER subgenre. Sp for instance if we did, say, symphonic prog first, you might have, I don't know, Within Temptation, Saga, Iluvatar, even ELO maybe, ten of those. Then EVERYONE votes for their least favourite, say, two albums. Once the round of voting is over we go back, and vote off another two of what's left, until we're down to one. Then a different subgenre is tackled. I'd imagine it would be a rule only one artiste per subgenre.

If you prefer to do songs ok, but remember how hard it is in the first place choosing, say, your favourite Yes album for a subgenre. Actually, it's not your favourite, but the one seen as being the best of their catalogue, as this is supposed to eventually produce, to coin a phrase, the best prog album ever. Now imagine limiting yourself to one song! Think albums makes it an easier choice, but whatever you guys are comfortable with its fine with me.

The list submitted by KingSnake is good but covers too many subgenres and therefore makes it hard to pick the correct albums for the list. So it needs to be ALL of ONE subgenre. And yes, it's best if you can listen to the albums, thereby the delay in closing voting, to give everyone a chance to hear the albums. Initially, I guess, the first vote would not take place until everyone has had what would be considered a decent time to listen to as many of the albums as they need to.

1. We need a complete, cohesive and agreed list of subgenres. I've suggested some in the OP but there are surely more. Anyone who has ideas please post.

2. Once we have the subgenres, we need albums to fill each. These should be the recognised or agreed best from the artistes, not just your own personal favourites. Generally, 10 albums per list is the thing, but we can do more if you want. Just remember, the more albums there are the more (potentially) you have to listen to, unless you're some sort of prog god. The number should be uniform though, ie you can't have 10 albums for symphonic prog and 20 for prog metal etc.

3. Once all the lists are filled, we decide on a time limit for listening to all the albums in the first subgenre list we decide to use. This should be enough time to hear all of the albums in the list or the ones people have not heard already. I usually recommend a week for this.

4. Voting begins on the first subgenre.

So, can we try to arrange sorting stage 1 then?

Eclectic

Italian

Post/Math 

Krautrock

Jazz Rock/Fusion

Electronic

Neo

RIO/Avant

Space/Psychedelic

Just leave metal out since lots of people don't care for it. If it must be there, replace Electronic, since that's mainly just ambient stuff that again many people may not care for. Only crucial genres missing are Canterbury, which might be incorporated in jazz fusion, heavy (which is mostly just Rush anyway, so who cares), and Folk, which again is mostly just Jethro Tull. Throw them into the eclectic pile if you like. I'd have no problem replacing Neo with Crossover, but that's just me. Shall this work for your purposes? Stringent rule sets generally don't seem to go over well around these parts, you should probably just play it by ear. 

As for rules, nobody likes 'em, but without some sort of guidance a thread like this descends into chaos, as people decide to do this and that, and it just doesn't work. There aren't many rules, but for this to have a chance I think people intending to participate should expect to follow what few there are.

Yeah, I think that's probably the best advice. I'll check the main page and jot down the cats.