Why is Lobsters invite-only?

Invitations are used to combat spam and slow registrations. The user tree is public, each user is responsible for the people they invite, and moderators may disable the inviting ability of someone whose invitees are banned for abuse.

How is the front page ordered?

By user activity. According to the site’s about page, all users have equal votes, and public per-tag hotness modifiers affect every story with those tags.

Every story must carry tags chosen by the submitter from a predefined list, and they describe the topic. The community creates or retires tags through discussion and voting.

Lobsters Front Page Screensaver

The Lobsters Front Page screensaver shows the current front page of Lobsters, gathered key-less by the pipeline. A narrower and more technical community than the site's Hacker News savers, organised by tag rather than a single ranking. It's free, runs in your browser, and ESC exits.

How the Lobsters Front Page screensaver works

The background pipeline reads this from Lobsters and saves a snapshot the saver loads.

The current front page of Lobsters, gathered key-less by the pipeline.

It refreshes on a schedule, so what you see stays current.

Colours can be changed in settings; nothing is stored beyond your own browser.

About the Lobsters community

Lobsters, at lobste.rs, is a link-sharing site for programmers and computing enthusiasts that launched on 3 July 2012, created by Joshua Stein. It looks a little like Hacker News but works differently. Membership is by invitation, and the full user tree is public, so every profile shows who invited that user. Invitations are used to combat spam and slow registrations, and moderators may disable the invitation ability of someone whose invitees are banned for abuse. The source code is published under a 3-clause BSD license.

Every story must be tagged by the submitter from a predefined list of tags, such as python, security or devops, and the community adds or retires tags through discussion and voting. According to the site’s about page, ranking comes from user activity: all users have equal votes, and per-tag hotness modifiers, which are public, affect every story carrying those tags.

Self-promotion is limited: as a rule of thumb it should be under a quarter of a member’s stories and comments over the last year, and new users in their first 70 days cannot submit self-promotional stories. Because tags are chosen by the submitter, a story is occasionally tagged loosely. The ranking shows what this community finds interesting at the moment, which is not the same as what is important or correct.

A worked example

The current front page of Lobsters, gathered key-less by the pipeline. A narrower and more technical community than the site's Hacker News savers, organised by tag rather than a single ranking.

Settings & tips

Accent and Background recolour the display.
Run automation/run.py lobsters to refresh the feed.
Press ESC to leave fullscreen.

Frequently asked questions

Is this real data?: Yes — it comes from Lobsters and is refreshed on a schedule.
Is a key needed?: No. This source is fully key-less.
Is it free?: Yes — free, no download, in your browser.
Why is Lobsters invite-only?: Invitations are used to combat spam and slow registrations. The user tree is public, each user is responsible for the people they invite, and moderators may disable the inviting ability of someone whose invitees are banned for abuse.
How is the front page ordered?: By user activity. According to the site’s about page, all users have equal votes, and public per-tag hotness modifiers affect every story with those tags.
What are tags for?: Every story must carry tags chosen by the submitter from a predefined list, and they describe the topic. The community creates or retires tags through discussion and voting.

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