While Raftr began as a place for people to get current on shared interests across news, sports, and entertainment, it has now evolved to instead be a place for university students to get current on what’s happening on campus.

When Raftr launched, people could join rafts to get current on their favorite sports teams, tv shows, and current events and other news stories, as well as connecting with others who shared their interests. We later termed that original purpose our “real world” experience, while also adding an authenticated, college-campus Raftr experience. Using the same features as in the real world version, like posting and chatting in rafts, we create private social networks for each school we partner with to give university students a way to get current on what’s happening around their college campus, and find people who share their on-campus interests. Over time, as we saw strong traction at the universities we worked with, we felt it was best to put all our resources into this effort. Thus, Raftr changed course and said a bittersweet goodbye to the original, real world experience.

While there is still press across the web that references the past version of Raftr, it is now only possible for people to join the app with a verified, .edu email address at one of the schools we currently partner with. If you attend or work at a school we are not yet partnering with, and are interested in seeing Raftr at your school, please let us know via ask@raftr.com.

What’s up with the otter?

Raftr’s mascot is a sea otter. We chose the otter because sea otters are very social animals that often eat and rest together while floating in connected groups. A group of otters linked together like this is called called a “raft”. Rafts can include hundreds of otters connected with one another by holding paws. We see this as a metaphor for the many communities of people around the world discussing common interests and stories on our platform, which we call rafts for this reason.

What do I get if I join a raft?

Membership has its privileges! Joining a raft allows you to participate on its chat channels, create and comment on posts, and get other members’ posts in your feed.

How do I leave a raft?

To leave, go to the information section of the raft (touch the “i” in the upper right corner of its front page) and choose “leave raft”. If you leave a raft, you will longer get its posts in your feed or be able to create posts, chat messages, or comments. You can still view it, react to posts, and upvote/ downvote if it is designated as public in its privacy settings.

How do you decide which rafts to curate as “Official”?

We let the administration from the colleges and universities we partner with pick which ones are likely to be most successful on their campuses. We also watch what is engaging in the app and sometimes add official rafts that Raftr curates in order to create a more engaging experience.

How do I attract more people to my raft?

Creating an engaging experience by posting, chatting and timely responses to others is the best way to attract new members. We also offer you lots of tools: inviting from contacts, sharing links, the right to decorate your raft in interesting ways, the ability to pin posts that you find interesting, and the opportunity to show up in the discovery sections of the app – Explore and Search (by having ten or more members on your raft or ten or more actions in the last month).

What’s the difference between “following” and “joining”?

On Raftr, you follow people and join rafts. Joining rafts allows you to create content on that raft and to get posts in your feed. When your notifications are set to “High” or “Custom”, following people will notify you when they create or interact with posts.

Can I delete a raft?

There’s not a way yet in the app for you to do this, but if you would like to let us know and we can help. You can reach us via the Contact Us link in your settings, which are found via the gear in the upper, right corner of your profile. Also, if a raft has less than fifteen members and no activity in the last three months, we will delete it.

Can I delete my account?

While we never like to see people leave the app, we understand you may have your reasons. Right now there’s no way in the app for you to delete your account yourself, but we can do it for you if you send us an email at ask@raftr.com.

Notification Settings:

Sharing Communities – aka: Rafts:

Sharing Content – aka: posts or blogs:

Sharing posts is as easy as using the “share” button on a post, which will give you different sharing options based on the device you’re on.

How people see what you share:

• If they have the Android or iOS app installed already and open the link on their device, they will be taken to the post you are sharing with them.
• If they do not have the app installed yet and open on their device, they will be taken to the mobile web app where they will see the content you shared with them. At the top of the page there will be a banner prompting them to download the app.
• If they open on a computer, or mobile device other than Android or iOS, they will see the content you shared directly on the website.

More details on each privacy setting follows:

Categorization:

• Choosing a category and topic for your raft is mandatory when you create it
• These levels of categorization help people discover your raft via the Explore section of the app
• You can modify your selection at any time via the raft’s settings

Chat:

• All rafts have at least one chat channel, and this is created at the time of raft creation. You can also choose to create more chat channels, so that there can be multiple topics of conversations relevant to the raft
• You can modify the names of the channels at any time
• You can also delete chat channels at any time, as long as there is always a minimum of one

Cover photo:

• This is the picture that is on the Front Page of your raft
• You can add or change the photo any time

Default posts sort:

• Your raft has a tab for its posts, with buttons to allow people to choose how to sort them
• This setting allows you to choose what the default is for any person who opens that posts tab
• The options are:
  • Recent: All posts are shown in reverse-chronological order, according to when they were created (most recently created post at the top of the list)
  • Trending: All posts are shown in order of how many comments/ replies + reactions + votes on comments/ replies they have within the last 48 hours (most comments, reactions, and votes are at the top of the list)
  • Events: Only posts with an event added are shown; they are shown in order of when the event is – with the soonest coming event at the top of the list
• You can modify your selection at any time via the raft’s settings

Description:

• When you write a description of your raft, up to 225 characters, it will show up as an “About” section on the info page for your raft (which people see when they tap/ click the “i” button in the upper right of your raft’s screen)
• The description also shows up for your raft in some discovery lists on the Explore section of the app and in search
• This description gives you a bit more space than the tagline to tell everyone what your raft is all about
• You can add or edit your raft’s description via the raft’s settings at any time

Icon:

• This is the picture that represents your raft throughout the app, on the Rafts section of the app for all members, on the Explore section of the app, in Search, and on other people’s profiles
• You can add or edit it any time via the raft’s settings.

Membership:

• Join requests:
  • If your raft’s privacy is set to private and “by request”, you will see incoming requests from people who would like to join your raft in the raft’s settings
  • You can accept or delete each request
• Member management:
  • Everyone who joins a raft is a member
  • The person who creates a raft is its leader and may also have co-leaders and curators – all known as its raft admin
  • In a raft’s Member Management settings you can release members (to evict them from the raft), promote people into raft admin roles, or demote people out of admin roles

Name:

• The name of your raft is set when you create it
• Raft names are required to be 25 characters or less
• Updating the name of your raft will not update its permanent URL (for example: www. raftr .com/ raft/ 5925ead3e76dc95d60bd7725 – though this link intentionally does not work) which is where the raft is found on the web and how the app is shared
• For user-curated rafts, raft names may not be duplicated; if you attempt to create a raft with the name of one that already exists, you will be prompted to choose a new name (or you can search for the raft by that name to join it)
  • A raft’s name can be changed at any time via the raft’s settings

Privacy:

• By default, a raft’s privacy is set to public
• This can be updated any time through the raft’s settings
• We have a separate blog which can tell you more about privacy settings

Rules:

• A raft’s rules are the guidelines its members should follow
• These rules show up on the info page for your raft (which people see when they tap/ click the “i” button in the upper right of your raft’s screen)
• You can add or edit your raft’s rules via the raft’s settings at any time

Tagline:

• A raft’s tagline is a short and sweet description of the raft (up to 50 characters), which is required when you create the raft
• The tagline shows up on the front page of your raft
• You can add or edit your raft’s tagline via the raft’s settings at any time

Welcome Message:

• When someone joins a raft, they will be greeted with the raft’s welcome message
• A welcome message can be up to 550 characters
• You can add or edit your raft’s welcome message via the raft’s settings at any time