Flipnote Hatena: Rest in Peace

We are gathered here today to remember the loss of a service we all were sad to see shut down forever.

Even I, as I planned to resign before even knowing about the announcement from Nintendo, felt disappointed to see Hatena go. I knew it meant a lot to the animation community, because even though I had to leave, it still meant a lot to me as well. I still wish I could talk with all my friends and admirers, and hear what they thought of my newest AMV or Hatena Wolves that had taken me days upon weeks to finally finish. I miss it. Hatena was a huge part of my life as an artist, and I will never forget it.

There were good times, and bad, as you all know. Despite the thieves, false reporters, star beggars, and haters, we sill found reasons to come together as a family and encourage and lift each other up when we tried our best to make something worthwhile out of our art. We cheered for our friends as we saw their flipnotes on the Most Popular page, encouraged those who were struggling, and stood firm by the side of those who were bullied. We laughed at Gizmo's cleverly thought-up conversations between stick figures, and Fred's duet parodies of popular songs with his little daughter. We marveled at BOSS's amazing stick battles, and Shiny Eevee's smoothly-drawn music videos. We cried when we saw someone else hurting at the loss of a loved one, or them being so overwhelmed by the stress that they decided to leave Hatena in their past. And, we rebelled when they announced they were going to shut our beloved Hatena service down for good. Through everything, we were always a family...

And we always will be.

R.I.P. Flipnote Hatena ~

- Peace

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