How do nominations work?  How do I nominate a business for The Happening List?
Nominations are reader-driven; anyone can nominate themselves or someone else, as long as the category is relevant.  Simply fill out this brief form to nominate a business for any of The Happening List categories.

Who is eligible to compete in the Hunterdon Happening List?
Nominees must operate within Hunterdon County, NJ.  Businesses or entities with outstanding balances to Happening Media will be disqualified from the competition.

Can I add a link to the Happening List on my website?
Yes. Get The Happening List badge for your website here.

How does voting work?
Voting is done 100% by the public. Voters will need to provide an email address. If that email address is found to be invalid, the vote will not be counted. One vote per email address. One vote per email address.

What happened to the results? I can’t see them anymore!
Before the end of the contest (usually 10-14 days before the end), the contest will “go blind.”  We remove the ability to see the standings. Why?  Well, because the standings are a live indicator which do not take into account the audit process.

My competitor just went from 1% to 80% of the vote! Or (the opposite:) I had a 100 of my friends vote for me, and the standings haven’t even moved 1%. 
To answer this question, let’s revisit math class.  Percentages do not equal votes.  If there are 100 votes in the category, 1 votes will equal 1%.  If there are less than 100 votes in the category, it will be much easier to swing the percentages because 1 vote will equate to several percentage points.  But a category with thousands of votes will be much harder, because many votes equal 1 percentage point.

How do you handle cheaters?
We take our job seriously.

In order to ensure fairness and accuracy in The Happening List competition, an extensive audit process is in place while tabulating the results. Please see below for a basic overview:

  1. All voters are required to provide email addresses at the time of their vote. Ballots are programmed to count only 1 vote per email address.
  2. When the vote is cast, the system will send an email to that email address to validate the vote.  Within that email, the owner of the email will have the ability to click a link and indicate if a vote was cast without their permission.
  3. VERY IMPORTANT!!  –> We receive a notification every time a “fake email” is used.  A fake email address is one which does not exist, is abandoned or is disposable/temporary.  If too make fake emails are used during the course of the contest to vote for you, you will undergo a live-audit and risk disqualification.
  4. At the conclusion of the contest, Happenings Media performs an extensive audit of all email addresses, which takes several weeks.  AGAIN, invalid email addresses, email addresses created temporarily for the purpose of voting, disposable email addresses, role emails and Facebook email addresses are not accepted and will be removed during the audit process.  Invalid email addresses are disqualified.   An additional IP address audit and other more advanced analysis techniques are are used to ensure the most fair public vote.
  5. Once accuracy of all of the voters’ email addresses has been established, Happenings Media calculates the final results.

A Note on Unsportsmanlike Conduct

We are a small shop, and we cannot police the entire internet.  That being said, inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated and can result in immediate disqualification without warning.  Put simply, be kind.  Don’t bully.  Don’t get nasty with the Happenings staff.  No threats.  No negativity.  We just won’t tolerate it.

Think of it this way (this is what they always taught us in business school):  if you wouldn’t want it published on the front page of Bucks Happening, then it is inappropriate and it shouldn’t be written.

Are Facebook email addresses valid?

Facebook’s email addresses are NOT valid and will be removed during the audit process.

When does voting end? 

Voting ends at midnight on February 28th, 2022.  Following that, there will be a brief audit period.

When will the winners be announced?

The top winners of each category will be announced on this website in the spring (date to be announced). The Happening List winners will remain listed for the entire year and be given the opportunity to add detailed information about their business to the website.  Winners & finalists will also receive an official Happening List award.

Key Contest Dates

TUESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2022 – Nominations Open
TUESDAY, JANUARY 18, 2022 – Voting Opens
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2022 – Ballots Go Blind
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 28th – Ballots Close at midnight
TBD Red Carpet BASH!
Once voting closes, an audit period lasting several weeks will take place.  Stay tuned for a results release schedule.