Community Guidelines

Otter Raft’s mission is to reduce loneliness in a world that is increasingly isolating. We are committed to nurturing an all-inclusive community where everyone feels welcomed, respected, and safe to be themselves.

To achieve this, we created these community guidelines, which provide a general framework guiding which behaviors contribute to this end goal. However, we acknowledge that the interpretation of behavior is context-specific and may vary on a case-by-case basis.

We also understand that we are only facilitators of this community. YOU, the Otter Raft users, are the souls of this community. How the community is shaped is in your hands. And we respect that. In general, we encourage our users to be:

1. Be unapologetically yourself

We created this app for everyone and made it accessible to everyone, especially neurodivergent people. Our founder has autism. We understand the societal pressure on each and every one of us to act a certain way, to wear a certain set of “clothes.” We created this app so people can strip themselves of those expectations and just be: be the selves they are, not the selves they are told to be.

This intention is embodied in how we designed the template for your public profile. Not everyone fits neatly into a set of labels. We believe that self-expression is so marvelously distinct that it can’t be put into these boxes we label ourselves with. So we removed labels altogether. Instead, we encourage you to showcase yourself through videos: how you act, how you communicate, and what you care about. It doesn’t need to be your face. It can be anything important to you as a person. In this process, we encourage you to ask yourself: What is authenticity to you?

—The Otter Raft team

2. Let others be unapologetically themselves too!!

We don’t only want a single person to be themselves. We want everyone to feel safe enough to express their individuality. And this requires a community commitment. 

Thus, we ask each of our members to:

(a) respect each other

“We ask people to treat people how they would like to be treated themselves.”

Different opinions are what distinguish a human society from 1984’s dystopia. People walk very different paths in life, and we all hold different sets of values close to our hearts. You may disagree with some. You may agree with others. It’s a part of life. But everyone deserves respect. Have you ever waited in line at the grocery store behind someone seemingly vastly different from you? Then, she, the elderly lady, caught a conversation with you—a conversation so mundane that it feels oddly warm and familiar? That’s how we envision respect. Despite differences in age, stage of life, or any other traits, what you share is this moment together.

Therefore, we ask our members to respect each other despite differences. We even encourage you to explore and appreciate how you are different. However, if you don’t vibe with someone, it’s ok too! No one gets along with everyone. That’s why we designed a part-way feature. As its name suggests, “part ways” allows users to depart from a connection, made or unmet, with no hard feelings. You and they will both disappear from each other’s feed. We build this function in conjunction with real life. When met with an acquaintance whose company doesn’t align with your values, you can choose to slowly drift away from them without escalating the tension caused by this difference. We just ask you to be intentional and respectful when making this decision.

While we are on the note of respect, we want to emphasize that here at Otter Raft, we celebrate diversity. We have strict non-tolerance policies which include, but are not limited to:

  • We don’t condone discrimination, hate, or bigotry against people because of how they identify or look. This includes, but is not limited to: their race, ethnicity, gender identity or expression, sexual orientations, a range of physical and mental abilities, religious or spiritual beliefs, cultural background, or socioeconomic status.

  • We don’t condone harassment either. Clashes between identities, beliefs, and values occur. Beliefs are called beliefs for a reason. Behind every personal value lies stories unbeknownst to others. So we ask you to keep this in mind and settle differences respectfully. Harassment will NOT be tolerated.

  • Similarly, we don’t tolerate behaviors that make our members feel bullied, ostracized, insulted, or intimidated.

(b) Create a community where all can belong