Openverse

"Openverse is a social network created by PF2M that allows you to discuss games, communities and more. With no overprotective administration or post limit, you're sure to have fun here!"

Features

Openverse had a few features that improved on Miiverse's, such as:

• • No post limit

  • An increased character limit

  • The ability to set a website URL

  • Member IDs, which were displayed on the user's page

  • A white and blue color scheme as opposed to Miiverse's white and green

  • The ability to upload image files from any device

  • The ability to upload images and use them as profile pictures

A video uploaded by PF2M during Openverse's development showcases a feature where Openverse automatically embeds a URL on a post ending in ".nes" as a playable NES game on the post's page. Whether this feature was present in the official release of Openverse is unknown.

History

Initial Openverse Project

By 2016, PF2M already had experience in making Miiverse-related forums such as MiiSmash, a forum he made 2 years prior which received little activity. Around October of 2016, PF2M once again took interest in creating an alternative Miiverse forum, this time trying to replicate Miiverse's styling as much as he could. On October 12, 2016, PF2M started the project under the tentative name "Openverse", using the same forum-making service that his previous forums used, ProBoards. However, PF2M had difficulties with the project due to ProBoards's limitations, and scrapped the project the same day he started it.

The only public mention of this project was a post PF2M made to Banama Club that included a screenshot of it. This post is subsequently the first known reference since Xboxverse to the concept of a Miiverse clone as they are defined today, and the first outside of Japan.

2017 Development and Release

The current iteration of Openverse began development in January of 2017, when PF2M began learning PHP to create his own social network. PF2M would regularly post development updates to Banama Club, including the logo and styling he decided upon for the site. On February 16, 2017, PF2M posted a video titled "Procrastination", showcasing Openverse, and a particular feature where URLs ending in .nes were automatically embedded as playable NES games on the site. Since the beginning of its development, Openverse's development build was publicly hosted on openverse.000webhostapp.com.

On July 22, 2017, Openverse was deemed "finished" and launched to the public under openverse.pf2m.com. PF2M discovered that the server running his website was not suited for Openverse, and found out about a security loop that allowed anyone to access a user's notifications and post as that user. Because of this, Openverse was shut down very quickly, around 12 hours after its release. 147 users signed up and over 1840 posts were made during this time period. Openverse was still accessible as an archive, but nobody could sign in to or sign up for the site.

Several versions of Openverse were known to have been created during 2017, including a version of Openverse with a dark mode, which would become the inspiration for Closedverse, Openverse's successor.

Revival

After months of being an archive, Openverse was re-launched on December 15, 2017. New users could sign up for the site, and the users who previously signed up for Openverse could now sign in again. The member IDs for new users had a different formula: The numbers were reset, and 1,800,000,000 was added to it (for example, a member ID of #1,800,000,324 means that the account was the 324th one made after the site was relaunched). New communities were added to the site as well, such as the Mario's Princess Appreciation Community, and most infamously the NSFW community, which was added as a result of French raiders getting into the account of an Openverse admin and posting NSFW. Openverse was eventually moved to the domain seth.exposed in March of 2018.

Shutdown

Openverse was shut down sometime after April of 2018 as a result of its hosting provider crashing. According to PF2M, someone by the name of char bought Openverse's domain and offered to rehost the site. PF2M paid char 5 dollars to retrieve the database due to char not bringing Openverse back.

Sometime before April of 2021, openverse.pf2m.com displayed a blank page with PF2M's Mii replacing the cursor, and a surprised PF2M Mii moving around the page. However, the site has since shut down entirely.

Openverse^2

Openverse^2 was a version of Openverse made by Arian that was meant to be compatible with Openverse's database and interface. According to Arian, it was made in Golang and released in March or April of 2018. Some of the site's features, such as live posting, inspired the features of Indigo, which would also copy Openverse^2's upload button. Arian revealed the existence of Openverse^2 on April 4, 2024, following his FAQ statement he published to commemorate the 5 year anniversary of Closedverse's shutdown.

Old Openverse

On September 2, 2018, PF2M hosted an old version of Openverse under the original Openverse domain of openverse.000webhostapp.com. This version of Openverse had a lot of missing features, lacking user profiles and the ability to Yeah posts. Users who signed up for the site were able to create their own communities. This version of Openverse was known to have been online until at least January 25, 2019, though as of July 6, 2019 the site was shut down, with the link leading to a blank page with the message "it's over, you can go home now".

Rehosts

An empty rehost of Openverse under cedar-trilogy.great-site.net would be published on March 20, 2021, though this would be replaced with a rehost of Cedar.

closedverse-peak.rf.gd

In May of 2022, the user Braden created a rehost of Openverse under closedverse-peak.rf.gd. It had no communities, and signing up did not work. It has since shut down.

Utopia

Utopia was a rehost of Openverse created by Aymo. Aymo first posted concept logos of Utopia to Cedar-Django on September 13, 2023. The rehost was created on November 1, 2023 under utopia.helioho.st, but the link was made public on February 6, 2024. The user Omey attempted to DDOS Utopia on February 14, 2024, but was unable to.

As of April of 2024, Utopia has since shut down.