Rafts have three different privacy setting choices (public, private, and secret), which relate to how accessible your raft is to find and join by new members. For rafts designated as private, this setting also allows you to customize how open your posts and chat content will be for viewing by non-members. For example, you might want to restrict membership, but still allow your posts to be available in the “Popular” Posts feed and “All rafts” Events feed filter for non-members to see an event you want to advertise or to attract potential new members.
More details on each privacy setting follows:
Public: Official rafts are all public, and user-curated ones are public by default. This means anybody can join the raft and become a member without approval from its admin. All public rafts, when they have at least ten members or ten actions in the last month, are available in Search and are eligible to be on Explore. Everyone can see, react to, and comment on posts; see and vote on comments; and see chat messages. Only members can create posts and add chat messages. Private: Private rafts limit membership in one of two ways, either “By Request” or “Invite Only”. If you choose to create a Private “By Request” raft, you and your other leaders and curators can manage requests from the raft’s settings screen (accessed via the gear in the upper right of the raft). You will see the names and profile pictures of people who have requested access, often with an optional note introducing themselves and providing additional information about why they want to join. If there’s specific information you want potential members to provide, it is a good idea to mention it in your raft description. If you wish to create a Private “Invite Only” raft, you will be able to invite other people from the app and/ or from your contacts. Those that don’t yet use the app will then be prompted to download Raftr (in the App Store or Play Store) or sign up online at raftr.com. All private rafts, when they have at least ten members or ten actions in the last month, are available in Search and are eligible to be on Explore. For private rafts, you can decide whether or not non-members can see the list of members. If you choose to hide the list of members, non-members will only see the number of how many members the raft has. Private rafts also allow you two levels of content visibility to non-members. Many people want to allow some level of visibility in order to attract additional current. The options are:
- Closed: Neither chat messages nor posts are visible to non-members. The info page is also hidden from members, and the raft’s description instead appears on the front page.
- Open: Chat messages and posts are visible, and non-members can react to, comment on, or vote on them. Non-members cannot create new chat messages or posts. The info page is also visible to non-members.
Secret: Secret rafts are invitation-only and are not visible in Search or eligible for inclusion in Explore. Chat messages and posts are not visible to non-members. You can change your raft’s privacy settings at any time. If you change your raft from Public to Private, all members that have already joined will continue to be members. If you change from Private to Public, all pending By Request members will automatically become members. If you change from Private to Secret, you will have to manually approve By Request members whose requests were pending at the time of change.