Ultimate shoulder rides

Check with Axxo from liftandcarrymen.com - I had donated to this site a few months ago and wouldn't mind paying a nominal subscription.

I was just about to write, that this page is useless.... especially when admin created two categories of members...

Stupid rule, which made me to stop sending any pictures or articles. I do it only once in a year, despite the fact I have had much more to send.

I have been member for many many years, but my bonus membership was banned just because I dared to criticise admin, that his picture of war between Russia and Ukraine doesnt belong  to this page and has nothing to do with shoulder ride. 

At this time - when  instagram, youtube, and tiktok  are avialable - full of videos and pictures, page like this is not necessary.

Thanks everyone who run this page for so many years, but I think we can go without it.

Nick wrote:

Unless someone is interested in taking over the administration (and costs involved), I will close down this website permanently on Nov 1, 2026.

What kind of costs are we talking about?

I'd rather accept some administrative duties than allow the whole forum to cease to exist.

What about the archives? How will we access them once this is gone?

Many thanks for your kind words.

Misuolo and Chris: I send a private message to your registered email address.

I'm open for ideas. If anyone else is interested in managing and financing this website, just drop me an email: njetski@hotmail.com

The current cost for this website as it is right now is approximately $300/year.

The archives will still be accessible during 2027 but will likely close down after that, again, unless someone is willing to host it (100 GB storage).

This is heartbreaking to hear. Thank you Nick and Gunde too for keeping this going.

I found this forum almost 20 years ago, and I was so happy to have found people that shared the same interest, and posted shoulder riding videos that were hard to find. Sure we all have AI now, but it was different back then, and this forum was a lifeline. My first proper shoulder ride was through this forum.

I have no technical skills but I?d like to help it going. Can you email me too?

What a shame this site has to close! I have been a member for several years.Unlike a lot of correspondents who post fantasies and other rubbish,I have actually met REAL PEOPLE thanks to this site,and have even travelled as far as Hong Kong and America just for that purpose.
Thank you,Nick,for all your hard work in running this site,and I do hope that someone with the dedication you have shown will be able to continue running it.
Good  luck in your retirement!

Me too, I have been member 7 years and I like that website a lot. I'm also willing to pay part of the costs if somebody starts to continue.

Juniper wrote:

sorry but my proposal is no longer available.. because it looks that no one cares..

Perhaps some people would be able to show that they care if your offer was available for a bit longer than just a few hours

Last edited by Misiulo (2026-09-12 01:39:56)

Sad to see the end of an era, but understood. It's been great to find a community and realize I'm not alone in this niche interest. Thank you Nick for keeping this site running for a good 2 decades.

Since landcforum is literally men wanting to be lifted by women do we have no other options except liftandcarrymen?

Before the website closes, I say EVERYONE should get a bonus membership and enjoy the site before it's goodbye. Let's end on a happy note, what do you all think?

$300 / year is easy to raise. I could chip in $75 per year or a little more easily. I'm not an IT person, but my suggestion is use sites like fiverr or upwork, to source cost effective talent to monetize this site. They can set up the site to first of all, make it mobile friendly and second, to allow read only view for free, but to post in forums and view albums, a paid membership for like $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year. Everyone can afford that - it's less than a cup of coffee (cheaper rates for people from developing countries, for affordability reasons).

Sourcing talent from the sites I mentioned can be quite cost effective and revenue generated can more than cover the operating and hosting costs (especially if the site is mobile friendly, you will have more people willing to subscribe). Payments of course, can be handled by secure third parties like PayPal or Google Pay, so no one needs to put in their credit card information. An alternate name can be set up to show on the credit card statement.

I've met a few people through this site and could have met more, had job and career not kept me too busy. It's a great site and makes you feel part of the community. It's also made me realize I'm not crazy for liking shoulder rides, there are many others with similar interests.

Revamping this site, along with attaching a payment gateway, automated moderation tools and data migration would cost $1.500 to $2,500.
Payment gateway service providers would charge 2.9 to 3% per transaction.
Annual operating costs would top out at $500.

I'll send you an email if you want to discuss it further with me.

Nick wrote:

Many thanks for your kind words.

Misuolo and Chris: I send a private message to your registered email address.

I'm open for ideas. If anyone else is interested in managing and financing this website, just drop me an email: njetski@hotmail.com

The current cost for this website as it is right now is approximately $300/year.

The archives will still be accessible during 2027 but will likely close down after that, again, unless someone is willing to host it (100 GB storage).

ponyplay-es wrote:

I work in web development. A simple site like this can be hosted on a VPS for $5 a month, which adds up to $60 a year. The archives would add an extra $3 a month / $36 a year because of the size. These prices would mean cutting the costs to less than a third, to a total under $100. To get these prices I've considered Linode and AWS as providers.

Even more, the page itself could probably be hosted for $0 using some a more advanced setup, using Cloudflare which offers the workers and pages service for free. Only the archives hosting would be needed. I'm 100% convinced it could be hosted for under those $36 a year this way, but it would require work to get to this state. And work is clearly the limiting factor here.

I wouldn't mind helping a bit with IT stuff, but I think a restart with a new, cleaner, more usable platform is required. I've offered some help in the past, and the offer is still open.

That's great. An overhaul and efficiency improvement looks like a possible and a much needed update.

Carrier boy wrote:

ponyplay-es wrote:

I work in web development. A simple site like this can be hosted on a VPS for $5 a month, which adds up to $60 a year. The archives would add an extra $3 a month / $36 a year because of the size. These prices would mean cutting the costs to less than a third, to a total under $100. To get these prices I've considered Linode and AWS as providers.

Even more, the page itself could probably be hosted for $0 using some a more advanced setup, using Cloudflare which offers the workers and pages service for free. Only the archives hosting would be needed. I'm 100% convinced it could be hosted for under those $36 a year this way, but it would require work to get to this state. And work is clearly the limiting factor here.

I wouldn't mind helping a bit with IT stuff, but I think a restart with a new, cleaner, more usable platform is required. I've offered some help in the past, and the offer is still open.

The offer is great, and that would be a huge help from your side but Nick is not answering anyone these days and without him we can not proceed any further.

I think Nick made it clear he cannot put in any more time and work, and some of the older admins may feel the same way.  The members who want to continue it can communicate with each other, develop concrete plans, get bids, make arrangements for a server and a site, and get it started, etc.  I'm sure Nick will cooperate with helping transfer materials once it is ready to go, plus give advice.

It's strange that no one is talking about saving this site anymore.

What is the current status of this issue? With November approaching, we still don't have a clear answer. I don't want to be a party pooper, but could we get an update on the latest developments? Many of us have invested a lot of time and effort here posting a lot, does this mean all our contributions are at risk of being lost? If this platform is no longer active, does anyone have recommendations for alternative forums?

I've talked to Nick on email. The most important thing is that the decades of knowledge and human interaction are not lost. Sure there is some mass prouced slop, but also real contacts, lore and stories that are worth preserving. I am one of the people who would agree to contribute to keep it alive. If we don't have a new plan ready by 1st of November and Nick must close shop, the worst case scenario, I think it's important to preserve the archive, the database so it can be relaunched once a new areangement is ready.

In this day and age the AI (Like it or not) does 95% of the job. Chat GPT or Claude is now creating working mods for games!!! I know becaue I did it. So I think it is not as bleak as it seems. It's probably about money first and then about finding a person or a few people who care enough to check on it from time to time.

It's not exactly a 24/7 job.
It's a hobby.

Last edited by Misiulo (Today 00:19:08)