Looking for places to makes friends!

[LexxD0]

Can someone tell me the best friendly places to meet people?  I need true friends. 

[Cinnamon Mistwood]

Usually friends are made doing things in SecondLife that you enjoy doing.  What do you like to do in SL?  When are you usually logged in/timezone?  What languages do you speak?

Music? Creating things? Discussion groups? Role-playing?

[Katherine Heartsong]

In addition to @Cinnamon Mistwood's excellent suggestions, you might want to hang out a bit in the popular PG-rated music places like Muddy's and say hello in Nearby chat, be friendly, maybe say hello to someone whose avatar catches your eye, etc. But yes, follow your RL passions and there will be groups in SL that are centred around those.

Edited March 5 by Katherine Heartsong
spelling, like always

[LexxD0]

Thank you, both!

[Zallia Creeley]

Also, one other suggestion. Muddy's is usually packed. I'd look for smaller venues with a bunch of DJs on rotation. If you get a smaller group, local chat is easier to interact with. Plus, once you finda  DJ and a small crowd that follow them -- and assuming you like that group of people -- it's easier to get inito a cycle where "oh, Tuesdays at 9 this person is at this sim and it's not crowded."

[PheebyKatz]

8 hours ago, Zallia Creeley said:

Also, one other suggestion. Muddy's is usually packed. I'd look for smaller venues with a bunch of DJs on rotation. If you get a smaller group, local chat is easier to interact with. Plus, once you finda  DJ and a small crowd that follow them -- and assuming you like that group of people -- it's easier to get inito a cycle where "oh, Tuesdays at 9 this person is at this sim and it's not crowded."

This is a keen insight; places full of people aren't usually as conducive to friend-gathering in the wild as smaller gatherings are.

The larger a crowd the more diffuse the focus, and crowds actually seem to have a different mentality than people in smaller packs.

Now, if one identifies a smaller pack within a crowd, and becomes a part of that pack, things are easier, but most of the initial pack-bonding stuff generally doesn't happen at jam-packed events; those mostly serve to reinforce the bond already shared by the group.

It's just easier to become part of a group of friendlies when they can focus better, like in smaller groupings, and at say, the smaller venues they frequent when they aren't at the big places full of people.

Edited March 5 by PheebyKatz

[Katherine Heartsong]

Odd, maybe we define crowded differently. There are 20 here right now. No lag, 40fps on ultra, seems fine. I've hit dance places with 40+, and that's when it gets crowded. I find, for example, Fogbound far more laggy and crowded than Muddys. And Hotwife Hotel is a hot mess of non-rezzing avis and lag.

Edited March 6 by Katherine Heartsong

[Orwar]

4 hours ago, Katherine Heartsong said:

Odd, maybe we define crowded differently. There are 20 here right now. No lag, 40fps on ultra, seems fine. I've hit dance places with 40+, and that's when it gets crowded. I find, for example, Fogbound far more laggy and crowded than Muddys. And Hotwife Hotel is a hot mess of non-rezzing avis and lag.

   The amount of avatars is just one factor, the requirements to load each individual avatar varies, and even empty venues can lag if they're stuffed of poorly designed assets or the region's script memory usage is high (like how you can fly through 100 regions across open sea and not have a single slow crossing, but if the airfield you're going in for has a buttload of vehicles standing around and other stuffs your region load time may be so slow that you overshoot the crossing and end up in the next region before you've regained control of your vehicle, unless of course your descent was sharp enough that you whacked into the tarp - even if the region in question hasn't got a single avi in it). Lag comes in many forms, for different reasons.

[NipahRika]

I turned my draw distance down and that fixed a ton of the lag for me @Orwar. 

I found a thread on a subreddit which gave someone asking advice and tips on lag etc. So far, so good. I am gonna clear my cache every so often. I go to places like clubs which can have a ton of avis and there's some lag and slowness of course.

Anyway, onto the OP's comment/question.. I found the best way to make friends in SL is to meet and talk to people in places you go to. For example like clubs, music venues, gaming areas/spaces, and so on.

[Orwar]

43 minutes ago, NipahRika said:

I turned my draw distance down and that fixed a ton of the lag for me @Orwar.

   Rendering distance, LOD, and shadows are probably the primary 'non-avatar related' things (draw distance does of course reduce the number of avies you see if they're spread out, but in a club where everyone's in one big pile it usually isn't very helpful). For avatars you can set the maximum complexity (although personally I feel as if the framerate goes up if I render them fully, those jelly dolls are laggy for some reason!) and Max. # of non-impostor avatars; this is probably the most effective way to throttle the avatar lag in a club, just as with draw distance you will fully render the avatars closest to the camera, whilst all other avies within view will turn sort of pixelated. Not great for taking venue shots, perhaps, but 9/10 times I'm at a club I'm either just watching myself and my dance partner spinning around or camming around to peek at each avi individually (usually followed by a giggle before I cam along). 

[Zallia Creeley]

13 hours ago, Katherine Heartsong said:

Odd, maybe we define crowded differently. There are 20 here right now.

I was actually thinking less than 10.

Muddy's is the better option than Fogbound for sure.

There is a place I think called "the Club" that might be a good option. The Saturday crowd seemed like a set of regulars.