In my experience, the more you obviously care about . . . well, anything, really, the more you’re opening yourself up to be mocked or disliked. At least on the internet, that is.

nanafabulous personjesus takes preemptive measures to block trolling — it’s hard to troll someone who so very clearly could not give a **** less about what you say.

However, when you post things about how you’re going for ePeen, or trying to collect the most ePeen, or anything like that, you’re opening yourself up for dismay, since most of the people here are a) terribly intelligent and b) terribly likely to mock you for caring about such things to begin with. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t try to get ePeen — if that’s what trips your trigger, go for it. However, Sux2BU has good advice — if you want people to respond, your best bet is to go with topics that people really dig. Start a thread introducing people to your favorite bands, or, hey, stuff like the Buffy thread you did is good — I know I watched “Once More With Feeling” more than a few times.

It also doesn’t really hurt to genuinely want to help people, or genuinely want to discuss a topic (as Sux2BU pointed out). If you’re really genuinely trying to be helpful when you start a thread or reply to someone else’s post, it makes a big difference. It’s also important to make sure that you’re not just posting threads and not replying in others. Again, as Sux2BU pointed out, if you’re not replying to others and only starting threads and then leaving, it looks like you’re just whoring for ePeen — which, if you’re doing, fine, but you’re not going to be popular and you’re not going to get the replies you need.

YMMV