[BETA] LowEnd Shortener – A passion project for the community
Hi everyone,
I’m Andy, and today I’m finally doing something I’ve been overthinking for a very long time.
The idea for a dedicated, privacy-focused link management tool for our specific niche has been living in my head for several years. I’ve always felt that as a community of sysadmins, hosters, and tech enthusiasts, we deserve a utility that isn't owned by "Big Tech," doesn't sell click data, and understands the "LowEnd" aesthetic.
A while ago, I finally sat down and built it: LowEnd Shortener.
You might wonder why it took so long to see the light of day. I wanted to do this the right way, so I reached out to the management of LowEndTalk months ago to coordinate a release. Unfortunately, I hit a massive wall.
Despite "LowEnd" being a generic industry term used by all of us for over a decade, WNY IT Services, Inc. (LET owners) claimed that using the name "LowEnd" and domains like lowend.vip, low.ad or lowendspir.it was a trademark violation. I was told that the service would not be allowed on their platform.
I spent weeks in back-and-forth negotiations, even offering to hand over the entire project for free just to ensure it could exist for the community. But communication eventually went silent. This impasse drained my motivation and delayed the launch by months. It felt like a "corporate takeover" of a term that belongs to all of us.
After speaking with Mason (LES Admin), who was incredibly supportive and shared a much more community-oriented perspective, I decided to stop waiting for a "green light" from the corporate side.
I’ve realized that the spirit of this community doesn’t live in a trademark office – it lives right here on LowEndSpirit.
The system is currently in Beta. It is built on secure infrastructure, uses deSEC.io for DNS integrity, and is designed to be a bridge between our platforms.
- Branded Domains: Use
low.lc,lowendspir.it,lowend.vip,low.ad, and more. - Provider Features: Verified hosters can request vanity subdomains (e.g.,
yourbrand.lowend.vip) for professional-looking links.
I’ll be honest: I am still worried. I fear that releasing this tool under the "LowEnd" name might lead to the "ban hammer" being dropped on me. I’ve had my share of trademark disputes in the past, and they are exhausting.
Furthermore, I want to apologize in advance if my response time is sometimes slow. Due to health reasons, I occasionally have to step away from the screen, and it might take me a bit longer to reply to requests or support tickets. I hope you can forgive me for that.
But I truly believe this tool is useful. I’ve decided that the community’s need for a clean, free utility is more important than my fear of corporate retaliation.
I am releasing this as a beta because I need your feedback. Most importantly, I hope for some support from the LES family. If you believe that a community tool should be independent and free, I’d love for you to try it out.
You can find it here: https://lowend.vip
Note: I have retired the lowendta.lk domain out of respect for their specific brand, but I am keeping the project name as "LowEnd Shortener" because that is what it is.
Thanks for reading my "Ted Talk." I’m looking forward to your thoughts!
Best regards,
Andy





Comments
Why hijack other people's "name"? Just do something random and short. No one would even care.
Also, personally, I do not use any link shortener that uses tracking. So it's a NO from me.
This is pretty funny.
"It's a hard life- to be a stick insect." - Karl Pilkington
Are you never an obnoxious cunt?
"It's a hard life- to be a stick insect." - Karl Pilkington
Thanks for being so straightforward. Maybe you're right; maybe I'll end up regretting it.
Lemme check my calendar.... No, I dont see anytime I am not
Dont take it so seriously. It's just a suggestion.
You already have the software and infra setup, so it's easy to just add a few more easy or random short domains and you're done.
Any constructive feedback should be taken seriously, as it can spark new ideas or lead to new directions.
P.S.: If the project isn't accepted, I can redirect the domain to the relevant forums for free and without tracking.
Footer light/dark theme changer broken
Dark theme also doesn't work for verification page: https://lowend.vip/page/verification
Thank you very much for your test and the information you provided. You’re absolutely right. I’ll look into it soon. As for the verification page, the problem is that it’s an iFrame. So far, I haven’t found an acceptable solution for implementing dark mode there.
Great.
Side note... Fix your signature, check the rules, or lose it
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Erm, I dont see what's wrong with his signature...
No affiliate links
3 lines (since provider)
Creative
No images (all are text fonts)
Ah, maybe it's just on mobile my bad, it's 7 lines due to wrapping
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Speaking of which, why not have character limit instead of "3 lines"? Something like 140 chars for regular user, 210 chars for service providers (taking 70 chars per line)?
I'd love to know where LET thinks they hold a trademark for "LowEnd", because I can't find one (and I'm 90% sure it's too generic to trademark anyway)
They are not filing for a trademark dispute. They basically said you cant use LowEnd on their forums so people dont think it's a official LET link shortener. They are not stopping him from using LowEnd in the name elsewhere.
Ok, the phrase "WNY IT Services, Inc. (LET owners) claimed that using the name "LowEnd" and domains like lowend.vip, low.ad or lowendspir.it was a trademark violation" suggested rather more than that.
They do hold trademarks for lowendtalk and lowendbox, but claiming that covers anything with a "LowEnd" prefix is ... optimistic.
That's probably what @AGXL understood, but is definitely not the case. If it was a violation, legal action would be taken against @AnthonySmith first for LES first
I'm really glad that at least one person likes it - and the head honcho himself, no less.
By the way, my signature wasn't supposed to be displayed at all. I've removed it completely now, since it's irrelevant.
From the very beginning, LET gave the impression that they owned the rights to “LowEnd.” However, after I conducted my trademark research, they backtracked a bit. After I mentioned the names @Mason and LES and expressed concerns about the commercialization of LowEnd Shortener, I received no further response to my ticket with LET. I don’t know if this post will have any consequences for me on LET, but I hope not.
@AGXL Go quickly buy the domain highendtalk.com
Makes a lot of sense tbh.
>
I would have such fun making them test that in court, but I gave away LES completely, so I doubt I am legally responsible now
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If you do plan to implement it, do revise the char count as the numbers were pulled straight our of my arse
I dont have that sort of access these days.
tagging @Mason and @mikho seems like a good idea, I can't remember if it's possible via the UI, but it's almost certainly possible via the database.
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I can't remember if it's possible via the UI, but it's almost certainly possible via the database.
Or just update the rules to say 2 lines and XX chars, 3 lines and XX chars
Yes, i realize i totally derailed this thread... maybe move the convos to offtopic?
URL shorteners were an awful idea.
If you ever retire one or more of these domains, would you provide a copy of the short-to-long database to the Internet Archive?
We accept Karma donations for the last flan. 🍮 affbrr
Looking at the ticket, he made it clear that he owns the trademarks for LowEndBox and LowEndTalk, but at no point did he state that using the name "LowEnd" and those domains mentioned, violates or infringes on his trademark, nor did he claim it constitutes a trademark violation.
That's all I wanted to mention.
Please carry on, and good luck with your project.
P.S. Sorry, not speaking in the defense of Jon or his company, but claiming that someone said something they did not is not only inappropriate, but it's also misleading ✌️
"The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity." — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Thanks DP for the clarification!
I made a URL shortener as a way to teach myself basic database structure back in the early 2000s.Talked to a buddy later who did it even simpler- he just wrote it out to a file and upon URL request he'd redirect to the contents of that file. Obviously, the random goatse was just part of the fun. Haven't really needed one for convenience sake for years.
"It's a hard life- to be a stick insect." - Karl Pilkington
I completely agree with you. The Linkshortner idea is terrible. Even Google has shut it down. I made it very clear to @AGXL that we don't support it. A quick background: We may be the holding company, but Andy funds everything himself - that doesn't matter. Based on your messages, I’ll take the service offline as soon as I’m back in the office. By the way, all of @AGXL (Andy’s) projects are rubbish. I should know, because I’m his best friend.
I have a slightly different view. For privacy reasons, I’m not allowed to quote the ticket. Perhaps I also implied something that wasn’t actually there. In any case, I’d like to apologize for any discrepancies and any mistakes on my part.
Regarding the provision of a copy of the database with the URL links, it might be difficult to publish it in the Internet Archive for privacy reasons.
You’re absolutely right - my work isn’t good enough right now - I’ll do better.
As far as I am concerned @AGXL your site and its many options are very good.
I have no idea who @GoMaKe is, or your relationship but my advice would be keep going and you have my support (in the PM).
Get your FREE VPS if you develop Open Source software
Congrats.
Good look with the low end shortening
Your projects aren't rubbish if you enjoy working on them and learned something while doing it.
Are you saying if we didn't enjoy working on it and don't learn something new while doing it, thæn our project is rubbish?
How about if someone learned nothing while hated working on it? Like doing their job?
You promised slow response times yet you respond so quickly. Can I expect the same from your support? Under promise and insanely overdeliver?
I moved all my websites to Carrd, and cancelled all my idlers.
Save the earth, don't idle.
If you didn't enjoy working on it and didn't learn anything, then it's rubbish. Yes, most work projects are rubbish
I’m glad you’re calling my response time 'quickly'. Actually, people usually call me a 'slowpoke' or 'slow coach'.
Just the day before yesterday, I lost a relatively well-paying client because I didn't reply within 30 minutes late in the evening on a public holiday.
You should never overpromise. Being down-to-earth and honest is much better. By the way, please excuse my late reply.
Honestly, I've had clients like that before - in the long run, you're better off without them.
As per @ahnlak's comment, this would be a terrible client. If they're like that during the evening of a public holiday, they're going to expect you to answer the phone any time of the day. Unless you can charge them a rate high enough to reflect effectively being on call 24/7, it's just not worth dealing with someone like that.
This would be a terrible client DEPENDING ON HOW YOU MARKETED YOUR SERVICES.
If I'm paying multiple-thousands per month with a 10 minute SLA, a 30 minute delay in response is not acceptable.
On lowend, depending on impact, multi-day response times are fine.
Hey teamacc. You're a dick. (c) Jon Biloh, 2020.
A client paying multi thousands per month still needs to agree with specific SLAs. The response time is about 10 or 15 mins for the support team to "accept" the issue, but if they need engineering support, the SLAs are usually around 24 to 48 hours for the engineer to respond.
I pooped today.
"It's a hard life- to be a stick insect." - Karl Pilkington
The clients demanding an immediate response out of hours are almost never the ones willing to pay for it.
I don't often fire clients, but for those I make an exception :-)
Unless you are a bank and the user is complaining about a hacked bank account or stolen credit card, ignore or let go of these clients.
Congratulations! As long as you can still manage on your own, everything is fine.
Thanks for the project!
I have been a client like this in a larger situation and I agree better off in the LOWEND market. The margins aren’t worth the trouble.
I moved all my websites to Carrd, and cancelled all my idlers.
Save the earth, don't idle.