Letters to Strangers

Dear People of the Internet,

Could someone out there please tell me what an appropriate first message to a guy online is?

I wrote this once: “Hey there! I thought you were attractive and cool…and then I saw you were also a 49ers fan! Doesn’t get much better than you!”

To be fair, he wrote back: “Thank you! Who’s got it better than us? Nobody! Duh.”

My roommate immediately mocked me. A lot. With a nice condescending pat on the shoulder while saying “it’s okay, we can fix this”

So I beg of you – tell me what my opening line SHOULD have been?