Alright folks, so I finally jumped through the hoops and signed up for ESfna myself. Thought I’d walk you through exactly how it went down, bumps and all. Grab a coffee, this might take a minute.
First Glimpse at the Mess
Started off like any other Monday, scrolling through forums. Saw folks chatting about ESfna this, ESfna that. Curiosity got me – what the heck even is ESfna? Sounded like some exclusive club everyone knew about except me. Couldn’t find a straight answer anywhere. Typical internet.
The Hunt for the Entry Point
After bashing my keyboard searching “ESfna sign up,” “ESfna registration,” felt like going in circles. Found a few pages that looked kinda official, maybe? No clear “Sign Up Here” button. Frustrating. Almost gave up right then.
Then, stumbled on a community post mentioning a specific page buried deep. Thought “Alright, last try.” Navigated there – looked ancient, like something from 2005. But it had a form! Finally!
Filling Out That Ridiculous Form
Time to actually fill the thing out. Here’s where the fun really started:
- Email Time: Okay, easy enough. Put in my usual junk mail account. Learned that trick years ago.
- Username Hell: Tried “Bob.” Nope. “Bob123.” Nope. “Bob_The_Builder_2023.” Still nope. Cursed under my breath, hammered the keyboard until “XxBlueShadowxX42” worked. Whatever.
- Password Circus: You know the drill. Had to have:
- A capital letter
- A number
- A special character (Why?!?)
- At least 12 characters
- Sacrificial offering to the tech gods
Generated some ridiculous 20-character monstrosity. Immediately forgot it. Wrote it down on a sticky note like a chump.
- Profile Details: Asked for stuff like “preferred platform” and “region.” Felt like they were building a dossier. Filled it out with mostly truthful info.
- The “Verify You’re Human” Torture: The picture puzzles… THE PICTURE PUZZLES. “Click all squares with a streetlight.” Half the pictures were blurry, dark photos taken from the International Space Station. Failed twice. Threw my hands up. Got a cup of tea. Came back, squinted real hard, passed on the third try. Pure luck.
The Email Waiting Game (and Internal Drama)
Hit submit. Got the “Check your email for a verification link” message. Okay, cool.
Refreshed inbox… nothing. Waited 5 minutes… nada. Checked spam folder… zilch. Started thinking the whole thing was busted. Posted in a Discord channel I found. Got told “Yeah, takes awhile.” Fantastic.
Meanwhile, got sidetracked remembering this ridiculous internal fight at the old job about who actually managed sign-ups for stuff like this. Marketing said it was DevOps. DevOps pointed at Customer Support. Customer Support threw their hands up saying they were only handed broken things. Remembered why I freelance now. No one knew anything, ever. Classic workplace chaos.
The Glorious Click
Just as I was about to abandon all hope (maybe an hour later?), the email finally crawled into the Promotions tab. Clicked the link – “Your email has been verified!“. Felt like I’d cracked the Da Vinci Code.
Stuck at the Finish Line (Briefly)
Tried logging in with “XxBlueShadowxX42” and my sticky-note password. Error. “Invalid Credentials.” WHYYYYY? Thought I got everything right.
- Double-checked username: Copy/Pasted “XxBlueShadowxX42” – perfect.
- Double-checked password: Peered at sticky note like I was defusing a bomb. Typed it manually again… slowly.
Still nothing. Swore loudly. Then remembered caps-lock was on. Felt like an idiot. Turned it off. Typed again. BOOM. Welcome screen. My profile. Sweet victory.
Is it Worth It? Jury’s Out.
So yeah, that’s the saga. Spent probably a full afternoon wrestling with archaic forms, impossible picture puzzles, and slow emails. Got nostalgic about useless internal workplace arguments along the way. Finally got in. Logged in, looked around…
Honestly? Looks kinda empty so far. Maybe I joined at the wrong time? Maybe all the action is hidden? Or maybe it’s just overhyped? Dunno yet. Guess I’ll poke around some more, see if it was worth all that aggravation.
Hope this saves someone some headache. If you go for it, bring patience… and maybe don’t use the kitchen sticky note pad for your password. Learned that lesson the hard way.