Help and rules: how the site works, what you can do here, and what we expect from everyone who posts.
Listening
Concerts Nearby plays one to three songs by each band with a concert coming up in the area you pick, so you hear who's playing near you before you decide to go. Listening needs no account.
- Pick an area: move and zoom the map, choose how many days ahead, and press Play these events. Whatever is on screen is the selection.
- Skip or pick: NEXT moves to another band; you can also pick a band from the list.
- Thumbs: thumbs up adds to the likes shown next to the band. Thumbs down skips the band and keeps it out of rotation until you pick another area.
- Concerts come from people who post them here, and from Bandsintown and Songkick for some cities.
How sure we are a concert is on
Every concert shows a colour and a score. Tap the score on the map to read who posted it, who defended or disputed it, and why. Check before you go.
| Label | Means | Plays? |
|---|---|---|
| Confirmed | A score of 10 or more, an official event link (a ticket site we know, or the venue's own page naming the band and the date), or the band or venue said yes. | Yes |
| Likely | 4 to 9: more people vouch for it. A Bandsintown or Songkick listing counts 9, since we may have matched another band with the same name. | Yes |
| Unconfirmed | 2 or 3: where a fan's new post starts. | Yes |
| Doubtful | 0 or 1: people doubt it, or nobody stands behind it yet. | Only if you tick Play low confidence events too |
| Disputed | Below 0. It stays on the map with its comments, and defends can bring it back. | No |
| Not happening | The band or venue said no. Shown for 3 days. | No |
The score is the poster's points, plus the points of everyone who defends the concert, minus the points of everyone who disputes it. Nobody decides by hand whether a concert is real; not even our admins.
Accounts and sign-in
- Register with your email address only. We send a link; clicking it signs you in. There are no passwords. Each link works once, within 15 minutes.
- Everyone starts as a fan. On your account page, add a display name and tick what else you are: a band, a venue or an organizer. Bands and venues then verify themselves (see below).
- Other people see your display name and role, never your email address.
- You need an account to post, defend, dispute or comment, not to listen.
Posting concerts
Anyone signed in can post concerts anywhere: one band, and any number of dates, so a whole tour fits in one form.
The music
- Paste the band's album link from Bandcamp or Subvert and pick up to three track numbers; the album must be by that band.
- Or give up to three public links to audio files (MP3, M4A, OGG). You must own them or have the rights holder's permission: see Songs and rights.
The venue
Search the venue by name; it comes from OpenStreetMap, or from venues we already have nearby. Wrong or missing places are fixed in OpenStreetMap itself. Verified bands and venues can place a pin of their own (for a private show, say).
Rules
- Post only concerts you believe are really happening. A concert that ends up below 0 counts against you.
- An official event or ticket link makes the concert Confirmed and undisputable. Add one if you have it.
- The same band, venue and date is only ever one concert. Posting one that's already listed counts as defending it, or as a correction (listing what differs) if your details aren't the same.
- Up to 50 posts a day per account.
- Got the date or venue wrong? Use Change on the posting page. The concert moves, its earlier defends and disputes are cleared, and whoever disputed it is credited as right. You aren't penalized for correcting it.
Defend, dispute and comment
- Defend a concert you know is on, with an optional comment. Your points are added to its score.
- Dispute one you believe isn't happening, with a short reason (required). Your points are taken off.
- One vote per person per concert. Changing your mind switches your vote; it doesn't add one.
- Concerts with an official link, or confirmed by the band or venue, can't be disputed; comments stay open.
- Every vote shows the voter's display name and comment.
- Be civil and stick to the concert. Comments are taken off the site after 30 days.
Your points, reputation and the pause
Points: how much your vote weighs
- A verified band or venue counts 10 points (so do admins).
- Everyone else starts at 2 and can grow to 6: +1 for every 5 of your concerts that pass with a positive score and at least one defend, or disputes of yours proven right.
- While a concert you posted is below 0, you count 1 point less; it comes back when defends lift it.
- A dispute proven wrong (by an official link, or the band's or venue's yes) costs you a point.
Reputation
+1 for every defend your concerts receive and −1 for every dispute, with no ceiling or floor. It shows on your profile, along with your posts, defended and disputed concerts, and your disputes proven right or wrong.
The pause
Within 30 days, each band with a concert of yours that fell below 0 through a dispute counts as one strike, and so does each of your disputes proven wrong by an official link. 5 strikes pause your account for 30 days: you can't post, defend, dispute or comment, and your upcoming concerts stop playing (others can still defend them). The pause ends by itself. If you think it's a mistake, write to us from your account page. Verified bands and venues aren't paused this way.
For bands
- Verify: tick Band on your account page, then put the code we give you on your Bandcamp or SoundCloud page (any page with music to stream). Other pages count when your Bandcamp page links to them. If our server can't read your page, or you have only your own website, ask an admin from your band page: we check it by hand. Once verified you can take the code off.
- Your word settles it: answer "It's on" or "Not happening" on any of your concerts; the votes stop counting and the comments are cleared. Your own posts of your own concerts are confirmed from the start, even without a link (a private show, say).
- Correct the details of any of your concerts, harvested ones too: the event link and start time.
- Set your music: pick the album that plays for all your concerts, or say you have no music online. Yours applies at once.
- Set your genres on your band page; they count as five people naming them.
- Name your organizers by email, so they can act for you on your concerts.
- Take down your songs if someone posted your recordings as audio files: open the concert and use Take them down. It applies at once.
- If two accounts verify under the same band name, both stay verified but neither settles concerts or sets the music until one gives way.
For venues
- Verify: tick Venue on your account page, then confirm an email address at your venue's own web domain (not Gmail or similar), or put the code we give you on your venue's website. The domain must be the one OpenStreetMap lists for your place, or a site naming your venue and its town or street.
- Your word settles it for concerts at your place: "It's on" or "Not happening". If you and the band disagree, yours decides whether it's on at your place.
- Correct the details (event link, start time) of any concert at your place, harvested ones too.
- Own your record: set your venue's own pin on the map, and merge duplicate entries of your venue into it (any venue within 150 m, or one with your name within 25 km). Every merge can be undone.
- Name your organizers by email, so they can act for you on concerts at your place.
For organizers
- Tick Organizer on your account page. It's a label shown with your name, with no review; on its own you count like any fan.
- When a verified band or venue adds your email address on its page, you act for it on its concerts: you confirm or call them off, correct the link and start time, and your posts there are confirmed from the start. It shows as done "for the band" or "for the venue".
- You don't set the band's music or genres. Unticking Organizer ends every pairing; the band or venue can remove you at any time.
Wrong songs and genres
- Wrong songs? Open the concert and propose the band's own album on Bandcamp, or tick that the band has no music online. Proposing the same album as someone else defends theirs. Once a proposal reaches 4 points it plays for all the band's concerts. The band's own account decides at once. A music fix never changes how sure we are the concert is on.
- Genres belong to the band. Anyone signed in can add up to 4 from any of the band's concerts; each genre counts how many people named it. We show our most-named genre beside Last.fm's, or the top 4 of whichever exists.
Songs and rights
Songs from a band's own Bandcamp or Subvert page are published there by the band. Songs posted as links to audio files are the poster's responsibility: posting them, you confirm that you own the recordings or have the rights holder's permission. We take them down when the rights holder asks, and a band's own verified account takes its songs down at once. Read the terms for the details, and how rights holders ask.
What we keep, and privacy
- Your email address is used to sign you in and to write to you about your account. Other users never see it.
- Comments leave the site 30 days after they're written; defends and disputes once the concert is more than 30 days past. They're kept in a private archive for our admins for up to a year. Scores, points and reputation don't change when they go.
- Your profile totals (reputation, points, posts) are running counts.
- Your last area, days and filter ticks are remembered only in your browser; we don't receive them.
Contact
Questions, comments or requests: giffyworks@gmail.com.