Clones
Miiverse clones are websites intended to copy the user interface of Miiverse, specifically the desktop and mobile versions of Miiverse. They were originally created in order to be a substitute for Miiverse, due to the problems that Miiverse had and the eventual shutdown of the site. Nowadays, people create Miiverse clones either to make a name for themselves or to keep the concept alive.
A list of things that make the average Miiverse clone differ from Miiverse itself include:
The ability to upload images and gifs on any community
The ability to link YouTube videos on any community
Having no post limit
Giving administrative roles to people, making administration less automated
User IDs, which display the chronological order of the users who signed up
Being able to use them without a Nintendo Network account (However, during sign up, an NNID can be used in order to use a mii as a profile picture)
Being able to use Gravatars as your profile picture (or upload them from an image file)
Looser rules, which allow users to post things with a lesser risk of deletion or a ban
Ability to switch from light and dark mode
History
Miiverse clones date as early as 2013, when the Japanese clone Xboxverse came into existence. As the name implies, it was a replica of Miiverse made for use on the Xbox 360. While hundreds of Miiverse clones have existed, the first "main" English one to be released was Grape. Grape was a Miiverse clone created by Miiverse hacker Arian in 2017. Another well-known Miiverse Hacker, PF2M, created the short-lived Openverse that was later archived. Around the same time period, Miiverse Yeahbomber Seth created Cedar, which was actually a series of Miiverse clones under the same name. A Japanese re-hosting of Cedar, known as exverse, was also created. In the later half of 2017, 2 months before Miiverse's closure, Arian and PF2M collaborated to create Closedverse, which was arguably the largest Miiverse clone in terms of userbase. Closedverse's source code was later used by PF2M to create Anarchyverse.
Due to criticism of administration as well as constant drama, clone creators in 2018 wanted to make clones that would fix the problems that Closedverse had. One of these clones was Oasis, which was conceptualized by the Miiverse clone user Pip and made using Closedverse's source code. One of the bigger clone projects was Indigo, which was created by a group led by a clone user named Ben. The release of the clone led to the mass-migration of Closedverse users to Indigo.
In mid-2019, the big Miiverse clones, such as Indigo, Oasis, and Closedverse, began to shut down. The shutdown of Oasis in April of 2019, the last Miiverse clone to house the majority of the userbase, is generally agreed to be the start of the "post-clone era", since there has yet to be a point where a clone's userbase reaches the same level of users and activity that Closedverse, Oasis, and Indigo had. Even after subsequent Miiverse clones were made, such as Uiiverse and MVWorld, most clone users did not want to return and thus they experienced little activity. cloned.pizza, a replica of Closedverse created by a developer named Robby (now known as Luna), also existed in this time, but was shut down quickly after sign ups were enabled.
There have been some Miiverse clones made during the early 2020s, though none of them achieved the large userbase that previous clones had. Some of the clones that were active in 2020 include Uiiverse, Project ULTIMA, and wakemeupinside.cf, though all of these have shut down. Minverse, intended to be a revival of Miiverse clones, was scheduled to release in late 2020, but has been cancelled. Other clones have also been announced for the future, such as Newverse.
Clone Creation Process
The user interfaces of Miiverse clones, as the term "Miiverse clone" suggests, take inspiration from Miiverse itself. A clone designer usually uses the source code from Miiverse or another Miiverse clone to set up the interface. The design can be altered in order to fit the aesthetic of the clone.
Like any other original website, creating a Miiverse clone requires knowledge of a programming language, such as Python (Closedverse) or PHP (Cedar and its derivatives). Like most websites, many of the visuals of a Miiverse clone are controlled by CSS scripts. Bugs or exploits can lead to shutdowns in order to change the code. A lot of clones, most notably Cedar, are open source, and their code can be found on places such as GitHub. Almost all clones post-2019 use another open-source clone as a base. Closedverse is popular among these clones, and its source code continues to be used to make various, often short-lived rehosts. Another notably popular base for modern Miiverse clones is Galaxy Plaza; it is unknown if its creator, TouhouBoi, actually hosted it himself, but the source code has been used to create numerous clones due to its relative simplicity to set up.
Usually, hosting a clone is not free. A clone creator must pay for a subscription to a hosting service in order to keep the clone's domain. Posts, yeahs, and other features can make hosting more expensive for a creator. Because of this, a lot of clones such as Cedar use free web hosting services such as x10Host and InfinityFree. However, these are known for not having the best quality and being easily susceptible to being taken down from false reports, as demonstrated by a user known as Mewtwo or Adam, who during 2022 and 2023 falsely reported numerous Miiverse clones hosted with InfinityFree, causing many of them to go down and sparking the majority of developers to use other hosting services.