The server ended two minutes earlier than I expected it to. Caught me off guard...

Thank you to everyone who showed up for it's final night of partying. I love all of you. I'm glad to have met all of you. I'm glad I could make something that helped people meet eachother and make friends. I'm glad I could make a server thank changed people's lives, in whatever small way.

Thank you all for helping me make Aliento's Micpsam Kingdom something I could be proud of and remember fondly for the rest of my life.

It is no secret to anyone that lately, the server has been on the decline. Ever since Valve made changes several months ago to the quickplay system that had players, by defualt, only playing on Valve servers, community servers, especially small ones like the kingdom, have suffered greatly. Valve has effectively put the nail in the coffin for community servers in their war against the minority of servers like Nightteam that give players pay to win hacks. I have no doubt that Valve could have easily found a better way of killing paytowin servers without negatively impacting well moderated community servers if they had really tried, but I digress, that is not why I am here typing this today.

At this point, there is 316 dollars and 79 cents in the Gameservers account for the Micspam Kingdom. The server has, for months, been steadily less and less populated, a far cry from the days when there was a waiting list to get in in the evenings. Lately it is rare to see anyone in the server at all. This has been very painful for me to watch. It's like watching a loved one succumb to illness, coasting by in life, waiting patiently for the day their body fails.

It seems a waste to use the money in the account on a server with no players in it, so at this time, I feel that the best course of action for me is to pull the plug. The money in the account (which is not withdrawable and only usable for Gameservers.com services) will hopefully, one day go toward funding servers for other games, or perhaps if Valve one day makes changes to TF2 that allow community servers to flourish once again, a new Micspam Kingdom.

Aliento's Micspam Kingdom will discontinue on September 14th. Community members will be hosting a wake for the server before then. Degroot suggested having one on the 30th of this month, so we will see if that can happen. Regardless, I would like to make the server's final few days some happy ones, so I encourage you to hang out on the server until then. I will also see about hosting an event of some kind myself on the final night of September 13th.

It's been a fun three years.

RIP Aliento's Micspam Kingdom
6/14/11 - 9/14/14

Aliento's Micspam Kingdom has a long history of being a fun and welcoming place for people of all walks of life. This is achieved through strict moderation of racist, sexist, homophobic, or other offensive content. While most of you are aware of not dropping slurs, I've been noticing an increasing amount of inappropriate or offensive humor or micspams that make myself and other people uncomfortable. Here are a few general reminders:

When in doubt, ask first or don't play it. It doesn't hurt to ask a mod about the content of a spam before you play it. Remember that donors and other regulars are not mods. Mods have a [mod] tag before their name.

Racism/sexism/homophobia isn't just slurs. The server is intended to be a fun and safe space for people of all races, ethnicities, sexes, genders, and sexualities. If your spam or joke is in some way at the expense of someone else's race, ethnicity, sex, gender, or sexuality, do not play/post it. This rule also includes anti-Semitism, which has been increasingly slipping through the cracks. Take your "Hitler did nothing wrong" garbage back to 4chan.

Pedophilia is not funny and not tolerated. Over a year ago I wrote a post making it clear that jokes, spams, sprays, or other content sexualizing children or fictional child characters is not acceptable. Yes, for those of you incapable of reading between the lines, that includes the characters of My Little Pony.

Explicit porn sprays are not allowed. This one has been slipping through a lot due to inconsistent enforcement. This includes both human and cartoon porn.

EDIT: Rape jokes are not funny and not tolerated. Just don't do it.

If you are confused about a rule, ask a mod or Aliento in private. I've discussed this before a while ago, but I'm re-emphasizing it: if you are confused about a rule, add the mod in question or ask Aliento about it. Do not throw a ♥♥♥♥-fit in the middle of the server. You will do nothing to help your case.

The server is not a democracy. As has been discussed many times, the Micspam Kingdom is not a democracy. It is Aliento's server and he has decided the rules. You do not have the right to freedom of speech. You do not have the right to a trial. If a mod asks you to stop doing something, stop doing it immediately and then privately discuss the matter with the mod or Aliento as described above. Mods have discretion about things like inappropriate spams, and just because something is not explicitly codified in the rules does not mean you can do it. If you act like one of those YouTube libertarians who film themselves harrassing cops and ranting about their rights, it's a great way to piss me off.

Thank you for reading.

Come celebrate the Fistmas season by logging in on the 23rd to celebrate Fistmas with me. I'll be giving out a random gift every half hour starting at 9 EST until midnight when I give away an entire pile of them. But wait! There's more! I'll also be giving out an extra special gift via steam to the person with the best Fistmas themed micspam! Wow! ♥♥♥♥!

So crack out the crisco and make sure your ass is clean, because I'm bringing my massive sack and dumping my load on everyone.

This is a reminder that extremely long spams (the general rule of thumb is anything over 5-6 minutes) are not allowed, unless you ask everyone else who wants to spam if it's ok to wait and they say yes. This is an issue I've noticed happening more often, especially among regulars who think they're immune to the rules. It is considered hogging the mic and you will be muted. Don't do it.

Additionally, extremely loud screaming and other "ear rape" spams are not allowed either. They're not amusing and not funny.

Lastly, remember that the general purpose of micspam on a micspam server is to entertain other people, not yourself. Before you play that 10 minute long incomprehensible badly-recorded standup comedy routine you ripped from Youtube, ask yourself if you think anyone would actually be entertained by this. If the answer is "probably not," don't play it. Some things aren't as funny when put into audio form. Remember that moderator discretion exists and if you're asked to stop playing something, do it.