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Lobsters

Lobsters is a technology-focused link-aggregation site.

Lobsters

Lobsters Reviews and Details

This page is designed to help you find out whether Lobsters is good and if it is the right choice for you.

Screenshots and images

  • Lobsters Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-30

Features & Specs

  1. High-Quality Content

    Lobste.rs has a reputation for hosting high-quality content, primarily focused on technology, programming, and related topics, which attracts knowledgeable users.

  2. Community Moderation

    The site employs a community moderation system where users can vote on submissions and comments, helping to maintain a high standard of discussion.

  3. Invitation-Only Membership

    New users can only join through an invitation from an existing member, which helps to preserve the quality of the community and reduce spam.

  4. Open-Source Platform

    The Lobste.rs codebase is open-source, allowing for community contributions and transparency in how the site operates.

  5. Minimalist Design

    The website features a clean and minimalist design that focuses on content without distractions, making it easy to navigate and read.

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Social recommendations and mentions

We have tracked the following product recommendations or mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you see what people think about Lobsters and what they use it for.
  • Lobste.rs is now running on SQLite
    Thanks I have signed up https://lobste.rs/~imustaskforhelp You are awesome mate!, have a good day :-D. - Source: Hacker News / 7 days ago
  • Grok 4.5
    Hacker News sadly jumped the shark in the mid-2010s, and went into orbit after Trump was elected the first time. Since then there's been a lot of political performers here, which has killed the quality of discussion significantly. Lobsters (https://lobste.rs/) is apparently a possible alternative, but the original HN magic has been gone a long time. - Source: Hacker News / 12 days ago
  • Ask HN: Another "Hacker News" with less AI and more human-focused hacking?
    This doesn't really answer your questions, especially as AI is permeating the field, but: https://engineeringblogs.xyz/ https://lobste.rs/. - Source: Hacker News / 12 days ago
  • Ask HN: Another "Hacker News" with less AI and more human-focused hacking?
    Try https://lobste.rs/, not completely without ai news but much better. - Source: Hacker News / 12 days ago
  • The dead Internet is not a theory anymore
    There's a third option: web-of-trust. https://lobste.rs/ has some problems but not bot spam. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Israel Strikes Oil Facilities in Iran
    For those frustrated on incessant political news on here, check out https://lobste.rs (and don't forget to flag this). - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • New accounts on HN 10x more likely to use EM-dashes
    Looks like http://lobste.rs is it. I haven't been invited, and I don't really think I should be, but I'm having a very nice time just reading. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • You Can't Trust the Internet Anymore
    HN with invites is basically https://lobste.rs/. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • GPT-5.2 derives a new result in theoretical physics
    Https://simonwillison.net/ is a pretty loud and moderate voice in the community. Also active on Lobste.rs: https://lobste.rs/~simonw But agree that there's an irrational level of tribalism on both sides. - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Captive Wi-Fi
    Also http://captive.apple.com and sometimes I'll do http://lobste.rs. This post reminded me to make a siri shortcut that just opens safari to http://captive.apple.com to trigger the captive portal. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • FBI raids Washington Post reporter's home in 'highly unusual and aggressive' act
    It's flagged because its historically not Hacker News. Many of the newer accounts seem to bias towards using this forum as a "reddit" to discuss how much they hate the current administration or their mental issues. The technical "hacker" content is getting less and less -- thank God for https://lobste.rs/. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • A website to destroy all websites
    I do feel like 40-50% signal ratio is still good compared to 90% HN did give me some leads in the start of just cool things to follow and I have been able to make an understanding of what things interest me and what don't due to it. And this has also been the reason I read a lot of comments etc. And content here, maybe more than I should. I don't know to me, building my own website and forum etc. Are possible but... - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Is Mozilla trying hard to kill itself?
    When you try to visit https://lobste.rs using Brave on Linux (on macOS it somehow works) you are blocked and given the following links: https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters/issues/761. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Ask HN: Does anyone understand how Hacker News works?
    Yea its a mixed bag. I think some people like https://lobste.rs and there's always https://dev.to. But if that doesn't work there's also infinite sub-reddits on Reddit or classically tailoring your own RSS feed using Feedly or similar. I got to that place where I've curated my source of news but it's by category; Crypto, Dev, Finance, Islam, Politics, Tech, UK, World. I've got a feed for each and it's all grouped... - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Confessions of a Software Developer: No More Self-Censorship
    > This incident was one of the most toxic things Iโ€™ve ever experienced, and it lasted for days. Yet when I look at the conversation itself, I cannot find anything that seems directly hostile towards them. You can read the exchanges here: https://archive.md/q8htc https://lobste.rs/c/mejg0v I do not see personal attacks. I see a fairly normal debate with a bit of snark, which is hardly unusual in online discussions.... - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Hacker News โ€“ The Good Parts
    Https://lobste.rs/ has a tag system. I asked some months ago why HN doesn't. The answer was that it adds complexity and is hard to remove if not worth it. They want to protect HN's minimalism. - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Ask HN: Is Lobste.rs Down?
    Curl -i https://lobste.rs/ gives me the following ```. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • Level Up Your Python: From Space Explorer to Project Master & Concurrency Alchemist
    Import requests Import threading From bs4 import BeautifulSoup Import time # Guild Master's "Supply List" (needs to be installed in a virtual environment using pip install requests beautifulsoup4) # Alchemist's "Time Splitting" technique Def fetch_news(site_name, url): """A "ghost assistant's" task: get the title from a single website""" try: print(f"Assistant-{site_name}: Starting to retrieve... - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Ask HN: Is it time to fork HN into AI/LLM and "Everything else/other?"
    This is why https://lobste.rs/ and reddit have tags/subreddits in a nutshell. They get too big and people want seperation. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: Is it time to fork HN into AI/LLM and "Everything else/other?"
    You don't even have to create it. https://lobste.rs exists and is opensource https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters It even has tags built-in. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: Lobste.rs Invite?
    Http://lobste.rs does describe apporaches to getting an invite. The site is a lot more topic focused than HN. Writing something of interest (web link) to the lobste.rs community is a good way to approach an invite request. ( see lobste.rs topic on chat section ). - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago

Summary of the public mentions of Lobsters

Lobsters, an invite-only technology-focused link aggregation platform, is increasingly being highlighted in discussions regarding online communities and technology news aggregators. The reputation of Lobsters is generally positive within the niche of technology enthusiasts and professionals seeking a highly curated and topic-focused community experience.

Community and Content Focus

Lobsters is commonly compared to Hacker News (HN), with users and commentators noting the similarity in format and purpose between the two platforms. However, Lobsters stands out for its stronger emphasis on maintaining technical depth and discussion quality, which some users argue is sometimes diluted on HN due to a wider range of topics. The invite-only model serves to foster a more tightly-knit and focused community, reducing the prevalence of spam and off-topic submissions, a point favorably acknowledged by many users.

Several discussions highlighted that Lobsters was founded by former Hacker News users, reflecting an attempt to provide a more topic-focused platform. The curatorial and community-driven nature seems appealing to those who value high-quality discourse over volume or diversity of topics. This characteristic comes at the cost of more general accessibility, as new users must seek invite links actively, usually by contributing valuable content or seeking community engagement.

Comparisons and Alternatives

In the landscape of social news and knowledge-sharing platforms, Lobsters is frequently listed as an alternative to well-known platforms like Reddit and Hacker News. While Lobsters is regarded as more niche and technical than Reddit, its discourse quality and topic focus are often praised over Reddit's more generalized and sometimes chaotic experience. Its technical inclination and the practice of requiring invites coalesce to form a community where technical merit and affinity are primary entrance keys.

Platforms like Tildes, Lemmy, and Aether, also aiming to address some perceived shortcomings of larger platforms such as Reddit, are similarly mentioned but each carries distinct community standards and user experiences. Tildes, for instance, embraces a text-heavy and minimalist approach, comparable to older Reddit iterations, while Lemmy leverages the Fediverse's decentralized ethos.

Challenges and Limitations

Despite its positive reception, Lobsters is not without critiques. Some voices in the community express concerns regarding the platform's invite-based entry barrier, arguing it may stifle diversity and innovation in discussions. Additionally, while aiming to foster high-quality technical discussions, there are occasional critiques about threads not deeply exploring technical intricacies, potentially reflecting unmet expectations from certain community segments.

Moreover, Lobsters does not entirely escape the broader criticisms directed at similar platforms regarding content moderation and echo chamber effects, although its stringent user control mechanisms bode well for maintaining discourse standards.

Conclusion

Overall, Lobsters provides a specialized and focused environment for tech enthusiasts seeking in-depth discussions. Its success in capturing the interest of individuals disenchanted with larger, less specialized communities lies in its commitment to quality and relevancy over widespread accessibility. This makes Lobsters a viable choice for users prioritizing technical content and community engagement over the broader, often less curated offerings of its competitors.

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Is Lobsters good? This is an informative page that will help you find out. Moreover, you can review and discuss Lobsters here. The primary details have not been verified within the last quarter, and they might be outdated. If you think we are missing something, please use the means on this page to comment or suggest changes. All reviews and comments are highly encouranged and appreciated as they help everyone in the community to make an informed choice. Please always be kind and objective when evaluating a product and sharing your opinion.