I think it's a bit like peeling off tape that's REALLY stuck down. You gotta work around the corners, then the edges, then you may be able to pull off a good post.

First the corners...

you have a short grace period. The 'cat likes new posters -BUT- if, within the first few posts you make no impact, it's best to change your forum name and start over again. This is because on the mudcat the threads are so long that hardly anyone reads all the posts. If you blend into the morass early on, your name will be the signal to move to the next post. (and note: LOTS of folks here respond to the question that heads the thread -- NOT any subsequent posts. That's why here on the mudcat, more than any other forum I've ever participated in, there is HUGE duplication in the content of posts in a thread. I used to take this personally -- as if I was being ignored. Now I know that, for whatever reason, it's how things are done here)

During this grace period it is essential that your posts be no more than three sentences (and those should be broken by paragraph lines if they are long). It is also important to grammarize and puncturate as mentioned above.

The above is true UNLESS you have really different, enlightening material to offer, or you are a VERY good writer, or you are a very funny writer.

next the edges....

If you survived the grace period, you may have noticed a small circle of people that actually notice and respond to your posts. If that's the case, you need to continue to respond in kind (use the "trace" device). A small circle of people noticing your posts will cause an exponential growth in others noticing because, as mentioned before, since hardly anyone reads posts from people they don't already know, it is only by the occasional acknowledgement by another poster that one might return upthread to read a post that gets referrenced further down the thread.

finally you can peel off a good post...

You can then take the chance to post a bit more involved post as long as you break the post into LOTS of paragraphs and follow the advice mentioned by the others in this thread.