i'll add to that.  people always say if you follow your passion, you'll be successful.  that's true and it's not.  you'll be successful if you define success as making yourself happy first.  if you define success as being popular.... well, you're mom was wrong.  just being yourself won't always get people to like you.  but it will mean that the people who like you really like you and not a shallow reflection of themselves. 

sometimes what you like to do and what's popular will come together.  sometimes it won't.  we all do some accommodating to fit in, and how much you want to do that is up to you.  i think the downside to being a part of an online community is how strong the pull is to do stuff that makes you popular.  there's dozens of ways in which score is kept in terms of popularity.  just keep in mind that it's as hard to try to achieve popularity by fitting in as it is to do it by excelling at your own thing. there's no guarantees either way.