Appalachian State University alumnus Davidson Wicker founded a social media site based on anonymity called RaveTree.com.

“I started RaveTree while working on my degree in applied physics,” Wicker said. “I needed a break from all my school work, so I began to consider the feasibility of creating a web platform that would respect users’ privacy.”

Wicker said that privacy was one of the reasons people would be drawn to use his social media site.

“Privacy has become such an important issue over the last couple of years, and I knew there were people out there that wanted an alternative to the existing big social networks,” Wicker said. “I kept hearing people say that they had major problems with privacy issues on sites like Facebook and Google, so I decided to address the issue.”

Launched in April, RaveTree.com has recently gained users in a total of 28 different countries.

“Every week I get emails from people saying how glad they are to have found a website with the features they want, but that respects their privacy,” Wicker said.

Chris Kohler, a recent addition to the RaveTree team and a professional web-developer, said he has observed several minor issues while tending to the progressive development of RaveTree.com.

“When it comes to creating and developing a new website with the functionality and abilities of RaveTree, you are bound to have issues,” Kohler said. “Most of the issues that we are having have been related to adding more and more features while maintaining ease of use and user-friendliness.”

Kohler said RaveTree is far ahead of the curve within the realm of social media, but the conflict of combining privacy and the features that users are used to is one that the developers must constantly address.

“The level of functionality with RaveTree far exceeds that of any single web application that I am aware of,” Kohler said.

Story: ELIJAH STROUD, Intern News Reporter