How to Give Good Evidence

Reliable evidence helps singers trust what they find. Here is what helps most.

KaraokeCrowd is not a scraped directory. It started with some data collected from Reddit, but that was too unreliable to be the standard going forward. From here, the directory grows through community submissions, supporting evidence, and listing history.

When you submit something (a new venue, a schedule update, an edit), you can provide evidence. The clearer and fresher the evidence, the faster reviewers can approve it.

Best evidence, from strongest to weakest

The best evidence is something a singer can trust before making plans. In practice, that means:

  • You asked the host or venue directly. A quick answer from the person running the night or the venue staff is the strongest signal.
  • A fresh social media post from the host or venue. A post from within 1-2 weeks of the event is strong, especially when it names the date, venue, and time.
  • An event flyer or poster with the exact date. A dated flyer is useful because it points to a specific night, not just a vague recurring promise.
  • You attended the previous event in the recurring karaoke night. If you were there last week and the same weekly night is still advertised, that is a good local signal.
  • The venue's own website. A maintained website with a karaoke schedule is great, but many venue websites drift out of date. Treat it as strongest when it clearly looks current.

Any one strong piece of evidence can be enough. You do not need to collect everything.

What does not count as good evidence

Do not rely on these alone:

  • "I heard they have karaoke" without a source. Hearsay is not verifiable.
  • Links to third-party directories like Yelp, TripAdvisor, or Google Maps. These sites copy from each other and often contain outdated info. We do not use them as primary sources.
  • Old screenshots or stale pages that do not show the event is still running.
  • Generic venue listings that do not mention karaoke specifically. A bar's homepage that says "live entertainment" could mean anything.

If that is all you have, submit anyway and mention what you found. Sometimes partial info leads a reviewer to the right source. Submissions based only on weak evidence move more slowly and may be rejected.

How evidence affects approval

Submissions follow one of two paths:

  1. Auto-approve: If you have a relationship to the listing (you are the host, you manage the venue page, you claimed the business, or you are a guide in the area), eligible edits can go live immediately. Brand-new venues, new hosts, claims, merge requests, and ending a recurring karaoke night still need review.
  2. Review queue: For everyone else, your submission goes to the review queue. A guide or directory moderator checks the evidence and approves or asks for more info.

Strong evidence means reviewers can approve quickly. Weak evidence means they have to dig around themselves, which takes longer, or they may reject the submission and ask you to come back with better sources.

New venues always get reviewed

Even trusted users and auto-approved editors cannot bypass review for entirely new venue proposals. A venue that does not exist in the database yet always goes through the review queue, no matter who submitted it. This protects against duplicates and bad entries.

Trust and local quality

We generally trust people until they prove untrustworthy. If you submit clear, useful updates, that helps the directory get better for everyone.

If you want to volunteer and help watch over an area's contributions, show us how you can improve the quality of the data people rely on. Good local checks, careful sources, and thoughtful corrections help a ton.

Tips for better submissions

  • Be specific. "Karaoke on Thursdays at 8 PM" is better than "They do karaoke."
  • Include direct URLs when you have them. A current post or schedule page saves reviewers time.
  • Include dates. "I asked the host on March 14, 2026" is more useful than "I checked recently."
  • Mention your source. Even without a link, saying "I called the venue on April 2" gives reviewers a trail to follow.
  • One strong source beats five weak ones. Focus on quality over quantity.

For the full submission workflow (how to submit, what happens after, how to check status), see How contributing works.