My adventures online started in the mid 2000's and one rabbit hole I soon found myself going further down was very much the kawaii so it was not so long before I bumped into Hello Kitty online from many unofficial sites and blogs connected to all things Sanriotown.
What it offered was gaming, all sanrio themed with Chococat and Hello Kitty herself, forums for endless discussion of everything Sanrio and beyond, post cards you could email and even blogging.
It also offered the ability to have your own very kawaii email with a choice of domains so I opted to have a @hellokitty.com email.
It was the ideal place for that younger than my years Littles me to play in a more child-like environment.
Thus there was a finality when on Monday September 18th I had this email.
"Dear SanrioTown Users,
We are writing to inform you about a significant upcoming change regarding your SanrioTown email account (“Your Account”).
After careful consideration and evaluation of our business operations, we regret to inform you that we have decided to cease the operations of SanrioTown. As a result, the SanrioTown website, Your Account and the relevant services that we have been providing to you will no longer be available from November 1, 2023 (“Shutdown Date”).
We understand the significance of email communication in both personal and professional capacities and assure you that this decision has not been taken lightly. Over the years, we have appreciated your loyalty and trust in SanrioTown, and we want to ensure a smooth transition during this period.
Therefore, we encourage you to save the chat history and any essential contacts or information of Your Account. On and after the Shutdown Date, you will no longer be able to access or retrieve any data in Your Account.
To facilitate the transition, we recommend that you take the following steps:
1. Backup Your Data: Please ensure that you back up all the essential emails, contacts, and any other important data in Your Account. This will allow you to retain access to the valuable information of Your Account on and after the Shutdown Date.
2. Choose a New Email Service Provider: To continue receiving and sending emails on and after the Shutdown Date, we encourage you to select an alternative email service provider, such as Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo Mail, among others.
3. Inform Your Contacts: Please notify your contacts about your upcoming email address change to ensure that they can update their records and communications accordingly.
We understand that change can be challenging and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this shutdown may cause you. Once again, we extend our gratitude for your support and loyalty to SanrioTown over the years. We genuinely value your business and trust that you will find an alternative email service that meets your needs."
For a period there had been issues with the email account being down for months and being locked out too so I had made an account with Gmail but now it seems that playground in the Ether will be no more.
Rather like Tinier Me, Friends Reunited and Experience Project another element of the past sails away to the internet scrapyard.
R.I.P. Sanriotown.com
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