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.