User FAQs

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.