Shocking Loss for the Yuri Community

February 28th, 2007

I was going to start “fanservice week” tonight on Okazu, with reviews of three lowest common denominator series OVAs that have just come out, but I learned something tonight that has made it impossible for me to do so.

Philip Mak, owner of shoujoai.com and the server that houses the Yuricon website has died of a sudden cerebral hemorrhage. The loss to the Yuri community is staggering. Philip was an important supporter of Yuri and his server housed many popular websites with Yuri content.

Philip was 26, was a huge Lina inverse fan, and always pleasant to deal with. And, sadly, I was thinking of him just this weekend – I have a notation on my “to do” list to email him.

I’m shocked and saddened by his loss. He will be sorely missed by many people.

16 Responses

  1. RC says:

    Whoa, that’s a shock. I used to visit that site occasionally few years back. I sometimes forget how human the people behind the web are. Sobering and quite sad.

  2. Todd VerBeek says:

    I just learned about this from a link on Journalista. My boyfriend Andy suffered a cerebral hemorrhage several years ago, also at the age of 26. Although he survived, he suffered brain damage which left him permanently incapacitated. Either outcome can be devastating, and my empathy goes out to you and others who knew Philip.

  3. And my sincerest sympathy to you too, Todd.

  4. This news is a tragic loss for the entire community, and it’s even more painful to see one die in youth. :(

    If it weren’t for the likes of Philip fighting to get Yuri anime, manga and stuff out into the world, masterpieces like Marimite would have a hard time seeing the light of day. I salute him with my greatest thanks.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Wow @.@ I met pmak when I used to frequent the shoujo-ai.com MUSH that’s hosted on his server. I didn’t know him very well, but he was a good guy and really has been a huge supporter for the Yuri community. It’s a complete shock for me to learn of his death… my deepest sympathies go out to all his friends and relatives.

  6. Anonymous says:

    unfortunately he scammed a lot of people in the gaming world, i’m not sure if a lot of people knew that because he did well in covering his tracks, but i do pity him for living a short life

  7. Anonymous says:

    To the last person that commented: No one needs to know, and this has nothing to do with shoujoai.com? And in my opinion he did not scam people. People knew what they were doing when they spent money on a FREE GAME that shouldn’t even be FREE…

    Anyway, may Philip rest in peace.

  8. While I have allowed the last two comments on Okazu, I want to make it known that this is not the appropriate place to have that discussion. Further comments of this nature will not be accepted.

    Comments with relevant content to Philip’s activities in the Yuri community or related thoughts will still be welcome.

  9. doinkies says:

    I was very shocked to hear this news. Though I didn’t go to shoujoai.com frequently, I did like to play in the MUSH there from time to time, and lurk a bit on the forums. Philip definitely was a legendary figure in the Yuri fandom here, thanks to shoujoai.com, many people discovered Yuri for the first time when there weren’t many sites about it (as opposed to yaoi). I hope he will rest in peace.

  10. Anonymous says:

    What will become of shoujoai.com?
    I send my sincere sympathies to philip’s family and friends.

  11. Like the Yuricon website, and everything else on his servers, shoujoai.com are being moved right now.

    Both Yuricon.org and shoujoai.com will be back online as soon as possible.

  12. M.Cheng says:

    Just adding to Philip Mak’s Loss, NG Evacorp – http://www.evangelion.tv (as some of you know) was hosted by Philip Mak, 7 years of friendship just blew up in my face. It is a sad loss indeed.

    I’m still trying to relocate the site onto new hosts, but the domain name can not be transfered, rather difficult when it is still under his name.

    If anyone has any information on how to contact people of Otaku Project, I’d be greatly appriciated.

    Webmaster
    M.Cheng
    NG EvaCorp

  13. Stephany says:

    oh my god…

    I used to work with him very closely and was, for a few years, working on animewallpapers.com. He hosted my old website, ayanami.nu. I had fallen out of touch with him, and a lot of the anime world, when my life took off and I bought a house.

    This is terrible! When did this happen?

  14. Anonymous says:

    I just found out. I worked on a project with Mak. I have always known to him to be a brilliant and kind person. We will surely miss him.

  15. Lyra says:

    Been almost two years, and I just thought of him again.

    He was a close friend throughout most of my high school years, and I had fallen out of touch with him just briefly before his passing.

    I thought it was a joke at first- and I couldn’t believe it.

  16. Anonymous says:

    Thank you for this article in Philip’s memoriam. I’ve looked up my friend four years too late.

    looking through the comments on this website and on the shoujoai forums (where google first led me to news of his death), it sounds like he had a real knack for finding people on the internet and helping their passions grow through their websites.

    I’ve copied my post on the shoujo forum below as I want to share as much as possible that he was a real pioneer in the communities he was involved in!!!

    Love to you, pmak.

    ******************
    Hello,

    I have a very sad feeling that this may be the Philip Mak I was trying to search for. Can someone confirm if this is the same Philip Mak who owned aaanime.net and one of the founders of animelyrics.com?

    I guess it must be; pmak0 was the username he went by about 10-12 years ago when he first messaged me about my little, modest website. He told me that he really liked what I was doing and the frequency of which I updated! It makes me smile to remember what a precise person he was. I was probably 14 at the time and he must have been about 16 but he was going to university at a really young age because he was so good at programming. He set me up with a fully scripted website and kindly hosted me from his aaanime.net server.

    He was always 100% supportive in all the decisions I made. I respected what he had to say and I really appreciate having had him as a part of my teenage years as an online friend. I really regret forgetting him till now and looking him up four years too late. I wish I could have spoken to him as an adult.

    Wow! Just looking at this forum and its practical programming and formatting; it’s got pmak written all over it. He was always one for functionality and definitely not aesthetics. I think he thought pink was aesethetics enough. :) Well, that was Philip.

    I wonder what caused the brain hemorrhage – I don’t know why death would claim someone so young.

    Rest in peace, my friend, I won’t forget you for many years to come.

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