Remember SFOGS?

It has been I think six months since the last time I drank and tasted the Macao Imperial Tea’s Original Milk Tea and I missed it. The first sip was just like how it tasted the first time. Yep, I like “boring” meals and beverages like the Original Milk Tea. Plain. No pearls. Just that. 

So as I was drinking the tea, I remembered something that wasn’t boring. Well, probably for me. 

Before the creepy mysterious voice in Ed Sheeran’s Thinking Out Loud, and all that jump scare videos which will end with creepy, bloody faces that are accompanied with loud screams, we had SFOGS. Do you remember SFOGS? 

Photo from twitter user akipoppy

People my age would probably remember the site as the place for paranormal photos and videos. I can’t remember if there were stories housed in the site for I did not read any. The site was all black with red accent for table outlines. I think the font color was red, too. This was where we saw photos of alleged mermaids found in the Philippines (which turned out to be an urban legend for there were stories that it was from the shores of Chennai, India, then the next week, it is from the shores of the Philippines), and all that. I remember it was also featured in one True Philippine Ghost Stories book.

"Real Mermaid" Taken from dontpaniconline.com

I was in high school when I learned about sfogszero.com. It makes sense for me as that was the circa when I learned how to use the internet. It was also the time of Nginig and Magandang Gabi Bayan (which was iconic, by the way). My classmate Bryan, if I remember it right, was the first one who taught me how to navigate and use the browser. After classes, we will go to computer shops nearby our school. Once we open the door to a shop, we will see familiar faces for some of our classmates were also renting a PC to play their online games. Some were finishing their crossword puzzle projects and some were lurking on chat rooms. 

We used to have a go to computer shop. It wasn’t fancy. It was actually the opposite of fancy. The shop was the farthest. It was manned by an old couple. The air condition was only used a few times, not always. Frequently, it was the oscillating fan that was at work (puta, oscillating fan! Electric fan.) The monitors were still cathode-ray-tube types when the computer shops along the street were already using flat screen ones. With all that, I was OK. I still opted to stay there and rent at PHP20.00/hour when others were priced at PHP15.00/hour. But unlike those shops which were always dark that the only sources of light were the switched-on monitors, the place was well-lit. It was peaceful there. They only had 10 units and lesser customers so my introvert self was at its own comfort and peace. And in that milieu, is where I discovered SFOGS, with Arra. 

During our remaining minutes inside the shop, after doing our research, Arra told me to key in sfogszero.com in the URL box. And so I did. I remember the very first video which I think was also the most popular one (I hope I can still find a copy online as I am typing this so I can embed on this entry). 

SO I FOUND A GIF VERSION AND TANG INA!!!! I HAD A HARD TIME VERIFYING IF THIS WAS THE MATERIAL OR IF IT WAS REALLY WORKING FOR I DIDN’T WANT TO SEE IT. BUT I FLIPPED MY PHONE A BIT, STRETCHED MY ARM, SO I WON’T SEE IT FACE-TO-FACE AND HERE IT IS!!! I ALSO CONVERTED IT TO A VIDEO SO YOU HAVE THE CHOICE TO PLAY IT ON YOUR OWN INSTEAD OF PUTTING IT ON AUTOPLAY WHICH MAY HAPPEN IF IT IS A GIF. 

The caption said look at the blue, the gate, the door, or something like that – the viewer has to look at a certain thing then within 20 seconds of intently staring, a gruesome lady in white would appear, running toward the viewer’s direction. That startled me. But I don’t think I shouted or shrieked (I always suppress my shrieks even in intense situations like riding the Anchors Away in Enchanted Kingdom). I was probably holding the mouse and accidentally let go of it or threw it a bit when the lady showed up. 

After converting the gif, I suddenly thought that the SFOGS video I remember was a little different from this. Not sure, though. Like this was not the exact video but the material is almost the same. Sorry, I am too scared to play the gif face to face. Let me know if on this material, the lady is running or she just appears. 

ME AS I WAS VERIFYING THE GIF FROM KNOWYOURMEME. Taken by anajunio.com

I was counting then I saw a moving object or whatever that is. (But with the second try, I think I was imagining that something moved for when I played the converted video, I just saw the lady appear by the door. My vision was not clear as I was in this position.) 

Then the next day, people in the classroom were all talking about it. 

Have you seen sfogs?! 

He was so scared!! 

Blah, blah shouted and cried when the lady appeared! Noob! 

And so on. Those were the days. 

However, it seems that the luster of SFOGS was cut short. Or maybe, just for me, for I am not really a fan of horror scenes despite being a collector of True Philippine Ghost Stories books by Gianna Maniego and her team of Ghost Writers, published by PSICOM.

I discovered the book when I was still in Elementary as I used to borrow books from a classmate. From then on, I buy one book each Christmas and my classmates would borrow them. Sadly, I lost all of my TPGS books, including the one my Nanay bought as a reward for getting high grades. The rewarded one, Book 2, went missing when a classmate borrowed it. But he replaced it with the same book. The ones I bought were taken by Ondoy, together with the replacement of Book 2, as they were with my high school classmate’s possession in 2009. 

TPGS Book 2 Cover from Goodreads.

Now, I looked for SFOGS on the web and I learned that SFOGS meant Singapore's First Online Ghost Stories (source: Reddit). Yep. I wasn't paying attention to the whole site when I visited it before. I only visited it once or twice.

However, sfogszero.com is no longer accessible. Well, the domain is up for sale. (I think I should buy it, kidding!) Though from Reddit still, a user said that it returned with a different URL in 2014: sfogsreturns.com. I accessed it and yes, the domain is up for sale as well. 

But wait! As I was looking for something while writing this, I saw a site – hungzai.com! The look feels like the old SFOGS and the tagline screams SFOGS – Singapore’s Freakiest Online Ghost Stories. Everything is red, black, and white. It has horror stories from different countries and they are categorized per item as well. They even have a recruitment for correspondents!

A screenshot of the site.

But with all the videos and photos, there was a certain train of questions that were floating around after visiting the site. Were the materials true? Were they manipulated? Well, I do not know the answers; but some looked so believable. The power of words in the copies, the magic of camera, plus the playful imagination of everyone, indeed. 

What’s your SFOGS story?