Special Server Fun Time brought to you by Valve!

[The Mighty Gerbil]

I'll let these direct quotes from different server owners on the Valve mailing list explain our current server status. It should be up soon I hope.

We've released a mandatory update for TF2.

Probably not such a great idea to do a TF2 release during the middle of the Steam server maintenance Window.
The end result is TF2 server operators not being able to update their servers so that clients have a place to play.

Steam>login anonymous

Connecting anonymously to Steam Public...Login Failure: No Connection
Failed.

Steam>Login Failure: No Connection

We'll be performing routine maintenance on some of the Steam servers Tuesday, September 3rd, at approximately 16:00 PDT (GMT-0700).
Gameplay for most users should not be interrupted, but Steam chat, game lobbies, matchmaking, and community web features will be briefly unavailable. Some multiplayer games that check for an active Steam connection may be affected.

Routine maintenance is happening now...

That was REALLY bad timing.

I believe the advertised "regular" maintenance window for Steam is 4:00 PM (Pacific) every Tuesday.
Of course, they don't always get started right at 4:00 PM.
The TF2 release was announced at 4:26 PM (Pacific).
Yes, to be fair, today they apparently did not get started on the Steam maintenance until 4:54 PM (Pacific).

Basically, my point being ... why would you release something that EVERYBODY has to download and apply, during (even or approaching) the regularly-scheduled maintenance window for the system that provides the download/update function?

It's like saying, "hey everyone! download and apply this mandatory fix immediately!" ... then laughing and saying "you didn't think you could actually DO that now? did you?.... ha-ha-ha, DENIED!"

Anyway, it's just a game I guess. So, not really upset.
Just thought it was ... eh ... un-coordinated.

I'm just curious as to what happened to the warnings we finally started
getting a while ago before these updates were released. It took years to get
them going and was really nice to be prepared when the updates were being
released. It's sad we've taken a step backward on this. Please return to
warning us at least 30 minutes prior to an update being released so we can
be prepared. It would be greatly appreciated and take so little work to do.

Thank you.

Boy, someone botched something eh?...

Well, getting a little closer .... according to Steam Support Twitter account, they finished the Steam maintenance at 5:00 PM (Pacific). My Asia/Pacific region servers won't update yet, but North America seems like it's trying to at least.

Asia/Pacific server is throwing a time-out.

I'll assume this is all load-related (now that Steam is back up again, everybody trying to update) and just keep trying.

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

It's up going to check if it's working now.