Our philosophy in one paragraph
We organize what venues publish about themselves and note how recently and how consistently they keep it up to date. Where we're confident, we say so; where we're not, we label it honestly. Nothing is hidden from you to make a ranking look better, and there are no endless feeds designed to keep you scrolling. The page is information; going out is the point. If a venue has been quiet for two months, we say so. If we've seen an update today, we say that too.
Freshness
Freshness reflects when we last saw activity for a venue — a new event or an update to its details. There's no “live” label: we can't guarantee real-time accuracy.
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Updated today | We saw a fresh update for this venue or event within the last 24 hours. We refresh from the canonical source on a bounded schedule — no real-time guarantees. |
| Updated this week | We saw an update within the last seven days. Confident that current details match what the venue is publishing. |
| Stable info, older | We haven't seen an update in the last couple of weeks, but the venue has no signs of dormancy. Details may be slightly older than what's posted on social media. |
| Quiet for 60+ days | We haven't observed canonical activity in over 60 days. The venue may be on a seasonal pause, may have moved, or may no longer be operating. We label this honestly rather than hide it. |
| May be out of date | It's been more than 60 days since we observed canonical activity, but governance signals (corrections, claims, audit events) continue to land. Details may lag behind reality. |
Lifecycle visibility
Six clear public states. The strongest negative thing we'll say publicly is “dormant.” We never call a venue “closed” — only that we haven't seen recent activity.
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Active | The venue has a consistent rhythm of upcoming events. The lifecycle classifier sees no signs of a pause. |
| Seasonal | The venue runs events during a specific time of year. We don't predict the next opening — we report the observed pattern. |
| Recently active again | After a stretch with no observed activity, the venue has started publishing events again. Treat as active but newer to the dataset. |
| Quiet recently | The venue has not posted upcoming events recently. Could be a short pause, a renovation, or a quiet stretch — we don't speculate. |
| Dormant | The venue has been inactive long enough that the lifecycle classifier marks it dormant. We never claim a venue is closed — only that we have no recent signal. |
Active tonight
The tonight window runs from roughly late afternoon through the early hours of the next morning, in each city's local time. It's based on three things: how many events are on the calendar, when the earliest starts, and the current time. There's no attendance signal, no “trending” signal, no personalization.
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Active right now | At least one scheduled event has already started in the tonight window. The pill is a pure function of the calendar — we don't measure attendance. |
| Active tonight | One or more events appear on the calendar in tonight's window (roughly 4pm to 3am local). |
| Coming up | An event begins within the next two hours according to the calendar. |
| Active today | An event is on the calendar later today, outside the immediate tonight window. |
| Nothing scheduled | We don't have any upcoming events in the tonight window. We'd rather tell you than guess at activity we haven't observed. |
Recurring reliability
For venues with recurring schedules (weekly trivia, monthly drag, seasonal series), we observe how often the schedule shifts. The verdict is per-venue, derived from the dominant verdict across the venue's recurring candidates.
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Highly reliable | The recurring schedule has held steady with minimal changes. A reasonable bet that the next occurrence will happen as listed. |
| Stable recurring | The classifier marks this recurring schedule stable, with limited drift over time. |
| Moderate reliability | We've seen the recurring schedule shift occasionally. Not unreliable, just not pristine. |
| Recently changed | The recurring pattern was updated within the last two weeks. Double-check the venue before counting on the next occurrence. |
| Unstable | We've seen frequent changes to this recurring schedule. Confirm directly with the venue. |
Trust badges
Each badge is a single explainable signal. A venue with no badges shows no badges — silence is honest. Badges are binary: present or absent. They never compose into a hidden score.
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Verified | The venue owner has completed the email verification flow and an operator confirmed the claim. This badge is binary — it's present or absent. |
| Operator-verified | An operator has explicitly reviewed and signed off on the venue's canonical data. Distinct from owner verification; both can apply. |
| Trusted recurring | Aggregated stability of this venue's recurring events crosses the trust threshold. Hover the recurring reliability pill for the specific verdict. |
| Active | The venue has hosted or scheduled events within the past two weeks. A factual signal about recency, not a prediction. |
| Stable recurring | The recurring-event classifier sees the schedule as stable with low change count. Hover the reliability pill for details. |
| Seasonal — back soon | The lifecycle classifier sees this venue active during a specific season. We don't predict the exact next opening day. |
| Long-running | The venue has been in our canonical graph for more than 365 days. A signal of platform presence, not necessarily venue age. |
Neighborhood activity
On neighborhood pages we surface a calendar-density verdict. It's a reflection of what's scheduled, not a forecast of what will happen.
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| High activity | 20+ events on the calendar in the neighborhood over the past 7 days. A density signal, not a quality claim. |
| Nightlife active | Five or more events scheduled tonight AND at least one starting after midnight ET. A reflection of the calendar, not a forecast. |
| Community active | Five or more events on the calendar over the past 7 days. Calm density signal — not nightlife-specific. |
| Seasonal surge | The overlap producer flagged a seasonal rhythm shift in this neighborhood. Expect more events than usual for a few weeks. |
| Currently quiet | Calendar density is low this week. The neighborhood may still be lively in person — we only report what's on our calendar. |
Ranking across search and AI
On search results and the homepage, we group venues into five bands using a small set of clear, consistent signals — not a black-box algorithm. Stale or dormant venues move to a labeled band, never hidden.
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Top signal | This venue's combined Phase-7 signals are the strongest in the visible sample. It doesn't mean 'best' — only that the explainable signals are highly positive. |
| Strong signal | Multiple Phase-7 signals are positive without being uniformly top-tier. |
| Standard | Signals are mixed or near neutral. We render this with no extra emphasis. |
| Low confidence | Either we don't have enough data on this venue yet, or several signals are mildly negative. The card stays visible — surface labeled, not hidden. |
| Older or dormant | Either lifecycle or freshness routes this row into the labeled-stale band. The row remains visible at the bottom of the result — we don't quietly hide rows. |
What we don't do
- No fake ratings. We don't publish star averages we can't back up.
- No engagement-driven ranking. Click-through doesn't feed back into how we rank.
- No personalization on public discovery. Every visitor sees the same ranking.
- No urgency framing. No “only 2 left”, no countdowns.
- No paid placement that overrides bounded signals. Pro-tier venues get tools, not rank boosts.
- No hidden filters. Stale and dormant venues remain visible, labeled honestly.
Spot something wrong?
If a label feels off for a venue you know — too generous, too pessimistic, or just inaccurate — we want to know. The venue owner can claim it and update the canonical record. Anyone can also email us a correction; we read every one.