Strongly worded opinions. My views expressed here are my own and not of any of my employers.

Miiverse is the social media service made by Nintendo. You can use it if you own a Wii U or a 3DS (and once Miitomo comes out I assume you can register using it as well.) But it sucks, and here is why.

So… I’m back again with another rant on Nintendo’s failures and idiocies. As always I would like to note that I don’t think that Nintendo is a bad games company, but their decisions are the thing that has been annoying me for years. Todays topic: Miiverse, the so called social media service by Nintendo.

False flagging

False flagging is one of Miiverse’s greatest failures. In case you don’t understand what it is, it basically means that if your posts get flagged for violating the Miiverse Code Of Conduct (which has a strangely wide topic, but more on that later) one too many times, your entire account will get banned.

In theory, this sounds great. It takes away a lot of work from the moderators (on Miiverse these are called Admins, which is the wrong name as an Admin is someone who handles the backend of the site, and that’s not what Miiverse Admins do) and allows the violating posts to be removed automattically. In reality though it’s terrible. Here’s a hypothetical scenario: You write/draw something and post it on Miiverse. Whatever you wrote pisses of 12YearOldKid (and he’s indeed 12 year old), and he flags your post for violating the COC. However, 12YearOldKid also is aware of the False Flagging thing and at the same time flags the rest of your account. Result? Your account gets autobanned and 12YearOldKid is happy.

Although you can get your account unbanned, that is a different issue on it’s own, and I will discuss that later.

Double Standards

…but not in the way you think they are. For those of you who don’t know what a Double Standard is, Wikipedia has got you covered. What I mean by this is that the Miiverse Admins don’t ban/remove posts by the same standards. There are dozens, literally dozens of posts on Miiverse that violate the COC, but only a small portion of them gets removed.

Why? One can only guess.

Miiverse Code of Conduct/Ban messagses

Now here is where the juicy stuff starts. Prepare some popcorn, because we’re going right in. For this particular case, we’re gonna look at the ban messages (mostly because the actual COC is a little bit boring) the Admins send you when you ‘violate the COC’.

Death by association

“You have been banned from writing messages and community posts for two weeks because a user who accesses Miiverse using the same device as you has violated the Miiverse Code of Conduct. “

…do I really need to say anything? Imagine a scenario where you and your little brother share the same Wii U (most likely, because parents typically don’t buy two of them). One day you are unable to game, but left your Miiverse account logged in. Your little brother then violates the COC. Your reaction is initially angry, but as you haven’t bought any games in the eshop (the eshop is a different issue with Nintendo, but that’s for later), you decide to remove your NNID and create a new account. A few days later you get banned with this message.

Friend codes appearentley are ‘Personal Information’

“Your post was removed from Miiverse because it contained and/or requested friend codes. The sharing of friend codes in Miiverse is prohibited by the Miiverse Code of Conduct.

For information on the proper use of Miiverse, please see the Miiverse Code of Conduct.

Continued violations may result in restrictions on your use of Miiverse. “

Ever heard of Friend Codes? No? Friend Codes originated from the DS era. The idea behind them was to let two users become ‘friends’ in games. Friends could then play various games together using WFC. Friend Codes later migrated to the Wii, and the to the 3DS and the Wii U. Although their original use hasn’t been changed an additional use has been added. Friend codes are used to make Pokémon Trades over the internet for example. So Nintendo blocking friend codes is a rather backward approach to this new use of friend codes.

Have a Twitter account? Don’t let Miiverse know.

“Your post was removed because it contained information on creating friendships using a system other than the friend-request system created for Miiverse. For information on the proper use of Miiverse, please see the Miiverse Code of Conduct. Continued violations may result in restrictions on your use of Miiverse. “

and

“Your post has been removed because it contains information related to an outside service (such as a user name or ID) or links to external websites that could be use to contact you directly. The sharing of personal information is prohibited by the Miiverse Code of Conduct. For information on the proper use of Miiverse, please see the Miiverse Code of Conduct. Continued violations may result in restrictions on your use of Miiverse. “

Although the reason for including the second one is clear, the first one is more confusing. It pretty much says that you can’t link to your own social media account on Miiverse. For accounts like Facebook, where most users share personal information with each other this makes sense. But for accounts like Twitter, it is complete garbage. So… have a social media account that is well protected against intruders and want your real life friend to befriend you on social media? Don’t ask them on Miiverse.

Last note on ban messages

So those are the weirdest ban messages on Miiverse. But before I finish this note, I would like to show you probably the most extreme ban message you can get on Miiverse:

“ATTENTION!

Seeing this message means your device and I.P have been permanently suspended.

Your ability to access, post messages, and community posts on Miiverse has been permanently restricted. Your ability to access any online services on this device have been permanently restricted. Any Nintendo devices that have been affiliated with this device are also permanently restricted.

Device information, messages, and I.P address have also been recorded. Attempting to access Miiverse through your current network on any device has been permanently restricted.

In addition any online services on all currently owned Nintendo devices have been permanently restricted. Furthermore, attempts to tamper or mask any Nintendo devices on your current network will result in your I.P address being reported to local authorities, resulting in a fine.

To continue the use of any Nintendo devices offline Please contact Nintendo Customer Service at 1-877-803-3676 for more information. “

This message is only shown if you post an Admins profile data (which infringes other parts of the COC, but that’s beyond the point). Unlike the default ban message (which is just a permanently suspended message), this particular one also removes any online access you may have had by IP bans. This includes teh eshop. A little bit extreme don’t you think?

To view all currently known ban messages, go to Miiversepedia’s article on it

Getting Unbanned

Getting unbanned is another fun process. You have the choice of sending a limited amount of messages to the Admins, rather than writing your own case and giving them your version of what happened, your only options are:

• I understand - This means that you accepted your ban and the unbanning is up to the admin. Funnily, this one does give you a response, unlike the second one.
• I did not violate the Miiverse Code of Conduct - The most common reason you want to be unbanned. Call Nintendo instead, it’s much more effective. Admins never give a response to this one.
• I have changed my Mii, Mii Name, or Profile Comment. - Only relevant if your ban was related to these things. Admins take anywhere from a day to weeks to reply.

If you want to get unbanned, call Nintendo instead. Much easier.

Last words

So you have heard me rant on Miiverse. What do you think? Is Miiverse really just as terrible as I make it out to be, or do you think something else? Did I miss any arguments or do you have any counter arguments? Leave it in the comments below!