I think it might be keen to add a third step to the voting process where we vote on what sort of item is next.

So itembuildr randomly pick, say, three item types out of a pool with certain rejection criteria (i.e. reject choosing the same type of item that was just done, make things like special items significantly rarer, etc.). Then on voting day, just have people vote for whichever one they like the most, and have the one with the most votes be the next type in the hopper. At least, doing this occasionally would be fun.