Closedverse
Closedverse's logo.
The Clone Forest has a gallery for Closedverse.
Closedverse Portal
Closedverse was the largest and one of the longest lasting Miiverse clones, so it is difficult to compress all the events that took place on there into one article. Here are several articles that relate to Closedverse's history:
Developers
Accounts
Websites and Documents
Communities
Closedverse Thanksgiving Table
Events
Features
"It's like Openverse, but made by Arian, un-famous Miiverse Hacker Inventor, and done right this time."
Closedverse, being a Miiverse clone, was an improved version of Miiverse feature-wise. A list of improvements and features include:
2200 character limit for posts
No post limit
Ability to toggle between light and dark modes
Ability to post images, gifs, and a section to add URLs
Ability to edit your posts
Ability to use colors when making a drawing post
Ability to use Activity Feed, since Miiverse did not allow for it after its redesign
Ability to use Gravatars instead of Miis (Eventually, users could upload images as profile pictures)
Ability to change the color of your username, though this was added about a month after its release
A more customizable user page, which allows you to enter your region, your Discord tag (though anything could be typed there), and a web link
History
The original red Closedverse logo.
The trailer for Closedverse made by PF2M.
Closedverse was the successor to PF2M's Openverse. Arian began development on Closedverse in July of 2017, less than a week after Openverse's launch and subsequent closure. It was originally pitched under names such as "Openverse Dark Theme" and "Openverse 2", and took inspiration from a version of Openverse that had dark mode. The name "Closedverse" was chosen because it was "opposite day", since Openverse was not actually open source when it was released, while Closedverse was made open source after its launch. Arian was in charge of the code for the site, while PF2M helped with designing the user interface.
A verified user advertising the link to Closedverse on Miiverse.
Closedverse was launched to the public under the domain closedverse.ariankordi.net on September 9, 2017. This was about a week and a half after Tom from Miiverse made the announcement of Miiverse's shutdown. Thus, Closedverse was heavily advertised on Miiverse in places such as the New Super Luigi U Community. PF2M also created the trailer for Closedverse, which was uploaded on September 12, 2017. Closedverse became arguably the most popular and active Miiverse clone of all time, in large part due to its advertising on Miiverse and the wave of users who joined immediately following Miiverse's shutdown. The site was temporarily moved from closedverse.ariankordi.net to closed.pizza at some point in time, before permanently switching to this domain in November of 2017.
Upon its release, Closedverse's logo was originally red. The logo was changed to blue in November of 2017 to match the blue theming of the rest of the site. As of December 11, 2017, following a maintenance, the logo was changed to a darker shade of blue with bolded text.
Closedverse's logo from November to December of 2017. Note the lighter shade of blue and thinner text.
An official Discord server for Closedverse would be established around the time of Closedverse's release. An unofficial Closedverse subreddit, r/Closedverse, was made on October 16, 2017. In addition, a Twitter account for Closedverse (@Closedverse) was made in December of 2017, though this account was apparently not owned by Arian.
Closedverse was prone to frequently go down due to site failures or maintenance. These types of shutdowns lasted for about a few minutes, though on rare cases they could be hours long. Additionally, Closedverse experienced multiple shutdowns around late 2017 to early 2018. The reasons for these shutdowns varied, though most of the time they were because of an error in the server and Arian needed to fix it. Arian would post updates about the server, and sometimes there were interactive elements on the page, such as a button that randomly shows a mii pulled from the server. At times, there would even be a new Closedverse server created while the main server was being fixed, though posting would be restricted to those promoted to admin.
Like Miiverse, Closedverse initially allowed users to delete the comments of their own posts. This feature was eventually removed in late 2017, shortly after drama involving a user known as Peachy-chan, who would use this feature to an infamous degree. While the ability to upload gifs was initially present on Closedverse's release, gif compatibility was removed in mid September of 2017 due to overuse, though it would be brought back in 2018.
During late 2017, Arian and some administrators became concerned with controlling the humor on Closedverse in order to make the site less "unfunny". One rule controlling humor on the site was a ban on traditional memes using the Impact typeface. inklingbot was established to control the humor of the website to what was known as "optimal comedy". This attempt at controlling comedy was short lived, and the threat of banning users due to being unfunny became less prominent by 2018.
At one point, Closedverse was updated so that the links to posts were randomized strings of text as opposed to a chronological number. This change was reverted shortly after. In addition, emotes were also added to Closedverse in 2018, using the same formatting as Discord (text surrounded by two colons). While the first few emotes were small, simple images, later emotes ranged from YouTube videos to playable games, including Tetris and the Gray Garden. Website ads were also added to Closedverse, and any revenue Arian generated from them was listed on revenue.closed.pizza to the nearest quadrillionth. According to an archive of revenue.closed.pizza, Closedverse generated at least $4.09 from advertisements.
Administration
Closedverse would have a lot of controversies involving admins. In the early days of Closedverse, there were only three people with badges - Arian, PF2M, and someone with a "Cave Story is Cool" badge, who got the badge on Closedverse after he changed his Openverse profile picture to Nico Yazawa, a character from Love Live!. Furthermore, there were only two main admins of the site, being Squibby and SpaceDoggo, who did not have badges but had "Admin" in blue text on their profile. Squibby would be the source of minor controversy in 2017 due a clone user named Dominic, who created Scratch games involving him as the protagonist and Squibby as the antagonist.
Later, administration would be given out to more people, and badges were created based on the specific administrative ranking of the user. A well-known user by the name of Pip would be the source of some drama for haphazardly promoting different people to administrative levels such as bot or mod. Pip was temporarily demoted for this.
Two users in particular, being Cookie and Citrus, gained administrative power at different time periods, and both garnered resentment from the clone community as they viewed their behavior with their power as immature and irresponsible. Cookie was promoted to admin due to senting leg pictures to Arian, while Citrus was responsible for deleting 100 users from the Closedverse userbase to prove to Arian that they didn't deserve admin (on the contrary, Arian promoted Citrus so that the account couldn't be unmodded or deleted).
Activity
Closedverse remained the most active clone up until Indigo's release. When Closedverse had a shutdown, users would migrate to other clones such as Cedar or Oasis to continue to post while waiting for Closedverse to go back up. Closedverse's activity plummeted after Indigo was released and users mass-migrated there.
deadness.closed.pizza was a page created to track the activity of some Miiverse clones. Higher numbers meant that the clone had less activity. Above is a screenshot from September 2, 2018, note that Closedverse had the highest activity.
Shutdown
Some of the very last posts made on Closedverse, revealed by Arian on the 5th anniversary of Closedverse's shutdown on April 4, 2024.
Closedverse was forcibly shut down on April 4, 2019 after Arian's computers were taken away by the local police department, causing Closedverse's server to be out of Arian's control. Over 10000 accounts had been made on Closedverse during its lifespan. For a brief period of time, PF2M made the site into an anonymous question-answering site. "Closafire", a blue retexture of The Gray Garden's Yosafire, became the "mascot" of the site at this time. A few days later, the main page of Closedverse was changed to a sign in page for "Facebook 2", using Facebook's user interface.
Closafire.
Because Closedverse's database was stored on one of Arian's computers, the Closedverse database was considered lost when Arian lost access to them following the police's seizure of his computers. However, after Arian retrieved his computers in August of 2023, he regained access to the Closedverse database. Arian does not intend to release the database to the public, partly due to the privacy implications of doings so.
Post-Shutdown
Around the start of 2020, Closedverse was brought back up as a directory after the user Jo bought the domain. The sign in button was still there, but it only lead to a crab rave video with the text "CLOSEDVERSE / IS GONE!". Below is a periodic list of what the closed.pizza domain displayed up to November of 2020, each bullet listing a change in the site's display:
An "addendum" of the site's legacy (After Jo gave the domain back to Arian)
The image below
A message that said that the domain was "reserved" and persuaded people not to make more clones
Another message talking about the site's legacy and influence (Domain was owned by PF2M)
The original version of Kai's bird game, by Kai
The image that closed.pizza redirected to.
Webpage Poll
In mid December of 2020, a strawpoll was put on the Closedverse webpage for what should be put on the closed.pizza domain, with a link to play Kai's bird game on the bottom. The poll was closed in January of 2021. The "info on what happened to closedverse + the rest of the clones" option in the poll was the highest voted one, with 122 votes. On March 22, 2021, an announcement was made for a "new site" on April 2. On March 29, this date was postponed to April 4, coinciding with the 2 year anniversary of Closedverse's shutdown.
April Fools' 2021
Closedverse on April 1, 2021, after attempting to click anything.
At the end of March 31, 2021, Closedverse was seemingly "brought back" under the closed.pizza domain, with communities showing. However, interacting with any of the site's elements causes everything below the header to fade away. The site will then be displayed as a motivational poster with the caption "WHAT", with a part from the EarthBound Sanctuary Guardian theme playing, parodying a meme from 2020. Upon clicking the site again after the music stops, the message "closedverse will never come back" is displayed.
Webpage Update
Closedverse webpage from April 4, 2021.
On April 4, 2021, the closed.pizza webpage was updated, with details on what happened to Closedverse and the rest of the clones. The page also states that while anyone is capable of making a Miiverse clone, "nobody has made one with the level of success of Closedverse, and nobody will until the community is there and willing to receive it." The webpage was made for the "majority" of people who never used Closedverse and "are just clicking old links to see what this was." Kai's bird game is still accessible at the bottom of the page.
Domain Expiration
Sometime after January 10, 2022, the closed.pizza domain had expired, rendering the webpage no longer viewable.