Lobsters is a community-driven platform for sharing and discussing links to articles, tutorials, and projects related to technology and programming. Readers can learn about a wide range of topics, from software development and system administration to cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. With user submissions, comments, and voting, Lobsters provides a platform for collaborative learning and knowledge sharing among technology enthusiasts.

Lobsters

A personal retrospective on how the internet has changed from the early 2000s to 2026. The author traces their experience from family computers and dial-up modems, through the exploratory mid-2000s web of GeoCities, Flash games, and AIM, to the centralization era of Facebook and algorithmic feeds, and finally to today's web — cluttered with cookie banners, AI summaries, age verification, captchas, and ad-driven search results. The piece mourns the loss of the indie, human-authored web where anyone could own a corner of the internet, and laments how visiting the web has shifted from free exploration to navigating layers of commercial extraction.

The Internet I Grew Up With Doesn’t Exist Anymore

<p>1-14 can be fixed with a couple of github scripts, browser extensions, and browser settings. Yes, it shouldn’t be that way but it’s the world we live in. 15-17 should just be added to blacklisted sites. As soon as people stop trafficking these sites, they will have to make changes or fail.</p>
