Stratum TLS support has been added for end to end privacy. Esp-miner is currently in the process of merging in support as well and this will be the recommended way to connect. (Port 4333). The recommended clear text port has been moved from 21496 to 3333 as well but both will be available.
I am ending the affiliate payout program. It hasn't been very popular, requiring monthly attention and I will instead divert the funds to hosting costs and continued 0% block fees.
Devices without an ASIC should find another server or service to use. It is likely I will increase the minimum difficulty in the future. Support was initially added for the OG nerdminer for the purposes of fun and learning but since retailers have abused consumer ignorance and these devices are creating unreasonable load on the server, sometimes maliciously with nothing to show for it. If you are one of these people you can always run your own stratum server, many solutions now exist.