I think iTunes DJ has definitely evolved the Party playlist idea, but i am bummed to see that the ability to drag-n-drop tracks to reorder them is now gone. it kinda defeats the ability of the DJ to mix the list and it really puts it in the control of the guests.
I agree there's room for development. iTunes DJ has a few interesting improvements over Party Shuffle, one of which is not, in my opinion the name. It's what I generally use to listen to music.l
You can give a song more votes by clicking "like it" under the right click menu. You can do this an unlimited number of times, so if you want to keep guests' ability to vote on songs and the semblance of rearranging them, that'll do it.
(With requests enabled and voting enabled...)
Or you can just right click and select "Play next in iTunes DJ."
Right-clicking on a song and selecting "Add to iTunes DJ" executes a command similar to a user requesting requesting the song on a portable device - the song is moved to near the top of the iTunes DJ playlist and is given a vote.
The songs seem to be ordered as follows:
0 = Currently playing track
1 = List of tracks designated by the hosting computer as "Play next in iTunes DJ," in the reverse order the "Play next" tracks were selected. (Most recently "Play Next" track being played soonest.)
2 = List of tracks requested by users, or designated by the hosting computer as "Add to iTunes DJ", as ordered by number of votes, or "likes". (Highest-liked/voted track playing soonest)
It would be nice to be able to insert/cue host-computer-selected tracks in between up-voted songs
