I feel like I need to explain my intentions behind all this a little more (and yes I know we all are a bit biased when it comes to talk about mapvote).
I like to start by saying that I am no friend of mapvote at all and that I usually like servers that have a 'fixed' mapcycle a lot more. The reason for this is simple, if you have a fixed mapcycle all maps get played and thus regular players don't get sick of a specific map that easy, as these maps don't get played more often as every other map. Of course it's possible (if you are a pretty unlucky guy like CoolDude claims to be) that you always join the server at the same point of the mapcycle and as a result you are forced to play the same maps again and again, but this risk is getting smaller and smaller the more maps are in the cycle. The one thing that is bad about a fixed mapcycle is the fact that the upcoming maps not always fit the number of players playing (possibly resulting in a 16 player Basmma massacre or a 3 player Nightmoves hide-and-seek). This is the point where MapVote really scores imo.
In the beginning I had MapVote set to disable the last 15 maps voted (as 15 is a number that gets close to the amount of maps played on one evening). I went to the server and enjoyed playing the 15 most popular maps on the first day, but as I've joined the server the next day I had to find out that (even though there were different people playing) we cycled through almost the same maps. Needless to say what happened the next days, so I decided to raise the value of blocked maps to 40 (having 74 maps in total on the server). The positive effect of this was that I finally had a chance to play some different maps (yeehaw!) but as a negative side effect I somehow always joined the server when 3 of my personal favourites where blocked (bad luck) as they seem to get voted as soon as they become available again.
So here is the point where I think the 'elimination mode' is superior to the other, as maps get eliminated 'til e.g. 15 maps remain and after that the complete list becomes votable again (that's all 74 maps) ... thus it's way easier to figure when a map you're looking for becomes votable again (in the standard mode you never know when a map drops out of the blocked map list unless you check the "last maps played" info tab of mapvote).
Assuming that the 74 maps on the server are a good collection of maps (else I need to think of changing the available maps in general) plus the fact that the list gets refreshed when just 15 maps remain should give all players the chance to vote for at least one map they like to play (try to nominate your personal 15 most unwanted maps and I guess you'll fail in doing so - otherwise there might be something wrong with you playing Jailbreak ... lol).
It is true that elimination mode gives regular players a higher chance to see and play there personal favourites more often (compared to one-timers and ever-now-and-then players *doh*) but I think that's somehow desireable.
Nothing is perfect and especially MapVote isn't, as there are basically just two ways to go with it. The first one (having only a few maps blocked) is fine for those who join the server erver now and then, but can easily become a reason for 'hardcore' players to avoid playing on the server or start hating some of the best JB maps because of the phenomenon called 'overplaying'. The second one (elimination) leads to a much more diverse mapcycle even though it looks a bit like it's taking away the 'free choice' of players at some point.
Again, try to see the way MapVote is set up now more like a 'fixed' mapcycle but with the added value of being able to choose maps that fit the actual number of players playing at any given time. In the end it's always based on/affected by the time you join the server and how much time you are willing to spend there. You love to play JB-TrainYard? Hold on, as it'll return for sure in just about 15 hours!
