| Rusty Foster | |
| Birth Name: | Lawrence Calvin Foster III |
| Education: | College of William & Mary |
| Children: | 3 |
| Years Active: | 2007–present |
Lawrence Calvin Foster III,[1] (born October 1976) commonly known as Rusty Foster, is an American media critic and programmer. He has been described as "something of a Zelig-like figure in internet history, popping up in key roles at various stages in the web’s development."[2] He is the author of Today in Tabs, the founder of Kuro5hin, and the creator of Scoop, a collaborative media application used by several websites. He also helped develop Scripto, the screenwriting software company founded by Stephen Colbert.[3]
In 2013, his Facebook account was subject to a 'prank' reporting him dead, drawing the attention of a number of major news outlets.[4] [5] [6] Since 2013, Foster has written occasionally for The New Yorker magazine, including on the Healthcare.gov debacle.[7]
Foster was born in July 1976.[8] [2] His father, Lawrence Foster, was a franchise developer for Dunkin' Donuts.[2] He grew up in Plymouth, Massachusetts[8] and spent his summers at his grandparents' cottage on Peaks Island, Maine.[2] Foster attended Falmouth Academy, graduating in 1994.[9] Later on he enrolled at the College of William & Mary where he majored in film studies, but dropped out on his senior year.[8] He learned HTML and moved to Washington D.C., where he worked for government agencies.[8]
See main article: Kuro5hin.
Kuro5hin (K5; read "corrosion") was a collaborative discussion website founded by Rusty Foster in 1999, having been inspired by Slashdot. Around 2005, its membership numbered in the tens of thousands. On May 1, 2016, the site was closed down permanently with all content taken offline.[10] [8]
Over the years, Foster has written an influential news media and Internet culture newsletter called Today in Tabs.[8] Its first iteration, which ran from 2013 to 2016, was syndicated on Fastcolabs and Newsweek and reached about 12,000 subscribers.[11] [12]
He restarted the newsletter in January 2021 on the Substack platform, with a Discord server for subscribers.[13] [14] [15] [16] In early 2024, Foster moved the newsletter to Beehiiv,[17] citing Substack's refusal to censor Nazis or extremist speech.
While a student at William & Mary, Foster met Christina Fischer, a history major. They got married and moved to San Francisco in 2000.[2] The couple relocated to Peaks Island in 2001, where they live with their three children.[2]