Mario Kart Wii's ghost system has been broken for some time; you can download ghosts via "Ghost Race" randomly, but you can't download the "best player", or any rival ghosts.
This is quite some issue as it basically renders the entire section irrelevant. It seems communication with @Wiimm and @Leseratte has been contacted, but no response.
I don't want to cause a riot or start any issues. I just want the leaderboards to be fixed if Wiimmfi is trying to go for "full support".



The ghost system on Mario Kart Wii uses SAKE/RACE; SAKE (pronounced like the Japanese alcohol, sa-keh) is a server designed by GameSpy for UGC (User-Generated Content) to be stored on.
Its purpose is to hold files, such as ghosts, or user-submitted tracks (in other games). It works by using custom SOAP - SOAP is an extension to XML with custom fields.


The game uses RACE, which is Nintendo's own server, for leaderboards (specifically, the Top 10). This goes against GAMESPY design, but it's Nintendo so they got away with it
The game uses SAKE, to upload the ghost to, as well as to download ghosts from.



The game sends to RACE the following data:


The course ID is sent, along with region (which is set to 0 for worldwide), and the action to "Get Top 10 Rankings". The server complies, and sends back 10 rankings - each one has their rank, the "userdata" (their mii and country code), and their time.



For Ghost Races, the game uses SakeFileServer, which is a simple way to upload and download files with simple filters. An example HTTP request for MKW:


This asks the server for ghosts for MKW (1687), without caring about region (0), with the user's PID so the server doesn't send the user's own ghosts back (p0), what i'm assuming is the course (c0), and the time that the ghost should be better than (t0)
The server responds with a header that seems to just be for server interaction, and then an RKG appended to this header. Then, the game just checks if the header is correct and then reads the RKG.
This currently works fine on Wiimmfi!




The World Champion and Rival Ghosts work differently. The game first asks the server for the best time via SAKE storage server (which is communicated with via XML) for the game - I have an example communication from a beta server here:

The server then sends back a response:


Then, the game downloads the file from SAKE File Server -


And the server sends the RKG file with a header that the game requires.



The current problem is that Wiimmfi does not send any data on the search for rival or world champion via SAKE; my game asks:



And the server replies with:



There is no MKW ghost there. It doesn't tell the game a file ID, so the game errors because it doesn't know what to do!
This is fundamentally a problem that is server-side, and thus the error falls on the head of the server maintainers.



Someone was banned for apparently uploading hacked times a long time ago (like a year or so), and nothing has happened about it.
Multiple times they have stated they haven't uploaded a hacked time, and yet the server administrators haven't done anything.
While the argument of "we dont have the ghost" can be valid IF the game didnt send the ghost (for competitions it'll either send the ghost file, OR just upload the ranking to RACE and nothing else), but even still, that proves the idiocy.
If someone sent a hacked time once, why are they being permanently banned when people have been just leaderboard-banned for doing it once? It seems unjust and unfair from any angle, and it's upsetting to see someone be banned over a time to a leaderboard server that's unmoderated, and doesn't even work.
The person should be unbanned, and while this may mean my entire thread will be ignored by @Wiimm, I felt it was important to reference.

I think a way to publicly view, download, and maybe even report the times for logged in WHB users would be the best.
It's just a case of if the moderators would be ok with viewing and acting on reports. I know Wiimm could make it so the game is sent a reported ghost (ie you press "Send to Wii" on the server and SAKE sends that ghost, but i dont know if it'd be easy).

However, having a server that works is the big issue

I see. Would it be the next thing to do on the priority list? Because it'd really be a great help if the server worked again (as would it be if the certain individual was unbanned as this was their first offence and we've never as a team banned someone permanently on their first offence)

Someone was banned for apparently uploading hacked times a long time ago (like a year or so), and nothing has happened about it.
Multiple times they have stated they haven't uploaded a hacked time, and yet the server administrators haven't done anything.
While the argument of "we dont have the ghost" can be valid IF the game
didnt send the ghost (for competitions it'll either send the ghost file,
OR just upload the ranking to RACE and nothing else), but even still,
that proves the idiocy.
If someone sent a hacked time once, why are they being permanently
banned when people have been just leaderboard-banned for doing it once?
It seems unjust and unfair from any angle, and it's upsetting to see
someone be banned over a time to a leaderboard server that's
unmoderated, and doesn't even work.