Where does one meet people in SL?

As the topic says I am wondering where one goes to meet people? Not the all-I-want-is-cyber type that one meets in clubs, but interesting, mature, creative, thinking type people.

In-world ...

It's hard to say; I think it's kind of tough. But try going to non-club events. I don't mean yard sales ... I mean events like, say, Primtionary -- folks are pretty nice there. Thinkers meetings are nice places too (they get together and discuss whatever the day's topic is).

Barbarra Blair holds Philosophy 101 meets sometimes (I don't really know how often).

Honestly, these events are not really geared toward meeting people, but they're loosely run, and there are lots of nice folks there. You'll start seeing familiar faces, too. Just keep your eye on non-club/sex events and you'll be able to meet some really nice people. (Hint ... look for punctuation and spelling )

Wonderful people are all over SL. This may sound vague but I assure you it's worked for me. My blog has lots of background, very VERY specific details of where I've gone to meet friendly fellow Residents of SL who excite me.

Inshort... I go, anywhere and everywhere I feel like. Sometimes I strike up a lovely conversation with someone who just happened to stroll into the WA and has their mind on quantum physics, othertimes I will go into a club and find someone studying social behavior rhapsodizing about herd mentality—then encourage them to dance! Or I may even see a great artist at work in the sandbox, or artists PLURAL. This happens a lot. Sometimes I just take my current car, a Damani Roadster, be like Driving Miss Daisy, and travel the roads and say hi to people I meet.

And for more structured things, once I make friends, I get to know their friends so they become my friends too. I look up Groups from the Find panel I may be fascinated by, and chat lots on the SL Forums—YOU'RE IN THE RIGHT PLACE!—for things that really light a shared spark. Infact, you can give Searching the forums a spin, look for keywords specific to what you're looking for. You can really root out good schtuff.

It was tricky for me to get a hang of it at first, but immerse yourself and the picture gets clearer and clearer, like textures being rezzed inworld.

Best of hope, Midnite!


P.S. Send lots of offline IMs to people whose profiles make you smile.

Thanks for the suggestions Torley and Lo. Was nice to see a couple of people replied with some ideas. Honestly though the response to what I considered a good question is indicative of most of my SL experience. Two people were open/kind/generous enough to reply, the rest just either knew nothing but the club life or don't give a damn.
I first joined with a friend's alt back in March, and after a while decided to actually get my own account, and buy some land. But the shine has worn off of SL. I am seriously considering leaving as the SL Universe as I see it is a cold, unfriendly and totally sex-orientated place. Since I have come into the Universe, I have had one relationship, which was seriously bad, and met a lot of people that to be honest I have zilch in common with. Hence the question on where does one meet people.

Really, it is similar to RL. You have to get out and talk to people. Can be frustrating, but once you find one person, the dominoes will start to fall. As has been mentioned, look in the forums and events for things that interest you and pop on by. People really aren't all that bad. Many, many wonderful people.

Try going to an event at the Shelter. Or a Live Music event. Sailing at Hollywood. Oktoberfest at Neualtenburg. Amuse yourself and it will fall in line. Even some of the clubs are not as sex oriented/mindless as you would initially think.

Not much help, but you have to put yourself out there. What are you intresested in, what would you like to talk about or do? Perhaps if you gave us a hint, we could steer you to a particular spot.

Try Akasha Village - people couldn't be nicer.

Come to Neualtenburg, meet the residents there, get involved. It's a very good group of people.

This is kind of a weird story but I heard about my present partner at the Shelter. They all said she was my alt so I looked her up and, by golly, I found out she wasn't my alt but we shared the same SL standards and we hit it off immediately. My first date with another female turned out to be a life long partnership and we have been together for almost one year now.

The Shelter is a nice place to meet nice people.

...is where I met one of my best friends, Hip, and solidified my friendship with my partner, Mulch. We were a whole group of newbs asking somewhat dumb questions, having a blast because at least we recognized they were dumb questions. We started talking about how few just plain bars there were in SL, went from the Q&A to a "real bar" (The Elbow Room) and we've remained friends since. Our friendships have become a whole spider web of friends of friends and partners of friends, but the "core group" has pretty much remained solid and we have a blast together. Starting out with other new residents really helps because you can share SL firsts together and help each other along as you branch out into your own special interests. Really, these first friends I met a Bob Bunderfeld's have been what kept me living and loving my Second Life

Good luck to you Midnite

I meet all sorts of interesting people in Sandboxes (and the things like Show and Tell events probably extend to similar interactions).

Some of the builders and scripters in sandboxes are a bit grumpy, or are just plain busy with their work, and won't have time for you. In general, I've found, a LOT of them like to get feedback from people, or are happy to talk about what they're doing, what they have done, what they're planning to do, or sometimes like to have someone to chat to between prim-manipulations.

Generally, if someone's really busy, they'll either say so...or they won't notice you're there. Otherwise, it's not hard to wander down into one of the Morris build areas, and find someone doing something cool that you can chat to...or the occasional impromptu party that's sprung up around a conversation already in progress.

Sometimes the Morris build areas are like some sort of bizarre party town

What are your interest, Midnite? I think there will be places where you will be more likely to find people who have similar interests. For instance, if you try out the Flying Tako sailboat (1L at the dock in Gray) you might become involved in the SLSF and race or just enjoy sailing. If you get involved in a group project for profit or charity you'll meet people. Join a group like Digital Culture or Thinkers, get involved in photography contests, start a little business, go to scripting classes, try games like DarkLife that instantly give you a lot in common with the other players. There's so much here - and no one way to figure it out. Good luck!

I met my best friend in a club. I met my sweetie in a club. I met another terrific friend when I was out shopping. I met this really great person in a group. I met a BUNCH of great people here, on the forums.
I'm sorry your first SL relationship ended badly. A lot of them do. But sometimes you get REALLY lucky and find THE ONE.
Look me up in-world and say hi. I'll gladly throw a party for you so you can meet people, or I can drag you around place to place, saying, "Hey everyone, meet Midnite!"
And while meeting people in SL is one of the best things about it, there are other things. In your first life, if you had unlimited time and money, what would you do? Well, you can do THAT in your Second Life.

Find me in-world and say hello. If I'm busy I'll tell you (and it will be true) but I'll make time if I can.

I hang around the busiest sandbox, i meet a fair few amazing people. The only thing you don't find in sandbox's is people willing to rate other because of thier work.

Dark alleyways and damp cellars.

Well I went to the Shelter and Akasha Village, but no-one was at either place. Then ventured off to Neualtenburg, and met two very lovely women. Chatted to them for a while, also ran into another chance visitor/explorer who helped me solve a build/texture issue that had been perplexing me. So all in all quite a good evening.
I know the timezone difference does make it harder for me to meet people in areas other than clubs, as I am coming on as most people head off to bed, and logging out when others are getting up in the morning.

People have asked what my interests are. Well I love graphics, making stuff (not a great builder, but make great custom textures and alphas). Am a total fontaholic, and love doing stuff using fonts. On a non-graphic note, I enjoy dancing, archaeology, comparative religions, psychology, art.

As I said above mostly the issue with attending events is that I am not online at those times. I often don't get online until about 4pm my time, which is roughly midnight USA, sometimes closer to 7pm my time.

U can usually make friends in populated areas, at events and social gatherings. You could also check out birthdates of avatars on their calling cards since finding older avatars can be rewarding in two ways, they share their experiences with you and can also help jumpstart your SL experience should you have any questions. And finding new avatars brings new meaning to the buddy system. I cherish my first friendships in SL as we learned together. Or host an event yourself and let the folks come to you.

Well, Midnite... I must agree it can be tough finding the right crowd (not to mention the times you are on are usually the times where you find mostly 2 green dots on top of each other acrossed the map). Which it can be fun to drop in on those folks but I doubt they are discussing the meaning of life or why/how snow flakes are never the same design. I usually end up at the Welcome Area, although there can be the average idoits, I enjoy the mixture of people, which is more than I have found at a club. This also applies to the sandboxes (note: the sandbox can be a dangerous place though). Good luck in your search and feel free to look me up, I think our online times overlap for about an hour.

hmm. . For me it was just random encounters. That and depending on what your avatar is. First person met.. . Venus Jaques. I say thank you again for everything you helped me with that first day. Next was Kanashimi whom I call a great friend and Alurandra. There are more but, my mind is a little foggy. Kekken Biberman, Ozone Moe, Aleu Gatsworthy, Samia. . All from just roaming around. So . . keep looking you'll find many a future friend waiting. Good luck to you.

Oooh... fontaholic! Not that... I'M a fontaholic, you understand! Heh - go look at Grignano Books -- wait, first go to The Photography Studio and check out the contest poster in the window and look at the notecard at the examples for all the past contests. THEN go to Grignano Books, upstairs. It's across the hall from the gallery space from The Photography Studio. You MIGHT want to make a book, or enter a contest, or start a SL photography business (they are in demand as not everyone can Photoshop their own portraits and things). You sound ok to me

You don't meet them, they usually land on your head while skydiving.

Ooooh! So many great meeting options have already been mentioned (the Shelter, The Elbow Room, sandboxes, live music [Frogg Marlowe, Astrin Few, Singer Tyne, Flaming Moe, Jonny Impfundo]). I have met some incredible folks at trivia games (now a bit more rare than they used to be) and through my group memberships (the Poetry Guild, the Philosophy Club). Don't forget live DJ events (Radio, Radio, for example, hosts one almost every day of the week--though, the times are often US).

Volunteering is also a great way to meet like-minded folks--there are tons of philanthropic events going on at any one time. Or you might consider becoming a mentor or a live helper--that will certainly keep you engaged!

If all else fails, IM me (or PM me)--I would be proud to introduce you to a truly fantastic group of people! Sometimes, we just gather somewhere dance and chat.

Best of luck!!

Midnite, hey there It's been awhile since I've seen you...and if I remember correctly, yes you were logging on at odd times. And unfortunately at the time you knew me, I probably appeared to be just another clubber with sex on the brain, because well, at the time, I was running a club...and well long story short, I am no longer.

The thing I've found to be the main reason I have most of the really really great friends I do in SL is because of one person. I'll meet one person, who already has, say 6 friends that they spend a lot of time with. I usually end up becoming really good friends with at least one of the six, or on some very odd occasions 4 or 5 of the 6.

I do meet a lot of really cool people in clubs, but sometimes you have to give them a chance (*cough* sorta like when you used to see me lol)...but are really great people. I'm not in clubs as much anymore, so feel free to drop me an IM, I can show you my pumpkin trailer and introduce you to the trailer park culture that seems to be uniquely American.

Thats a interesting thread of how to make friends. Yeah SL can be real cold in some ways. But lots of great people here, places to go see and builds, roaming the land doing a fly by of land to see whats new and such or just checking out new places or stores or sim or just poping into a club for a second. I'm not much big on clubs just like a lot here also. But i just pop in for a quick second see whats new or going on and funny thing happen just doing any of the above mentioned things........whala i run into people just doing all those things.

I have to TP to places doing all those things. Funny thing happen a take a min side step the TP hub before i leave the TP hub and if someone there i just say Hi ask how they doing and just be friendly. Amazingly they talk back and maybe have a conversation, sometime its a newbie so i just take the time to help and half hour goes by helping a newbie or someone, or someone with common interest. I make a friend, now i forget where i was suppose to be going when i TP to that place. I make a friend they have friends, i chat with them and continue to be friends they invite me to see their home they have friends there, some their friends i like or have some things or groups in common and we become friends and the hands of network weave and so now you keep making new friends of theirs or new ones and friends network grows. However i must say i do take the time to be a friend for all i have as friends and mean taking the time when i know they online to to send a IM see what they doing or say hello or if they wish to get together for a social or chat or hang out or see their new home or build. Just be a friend i would say. Whats the point in making friend.........just get out and do stuff in Sl or see stuff anlong the way you run into people some will be friendly and chat back some well will just fly off in a hurry to wherever.

I must second Tai's recommendation of Neualtenburg. Since I've become a resident of that sim, I find myself hanging out there all the time. I've met some of the most friendly, interesting, and smart people I've ever met in Nburg. There's some great architecture there, also. And dont leave without purchasing a chicken hat!

Yes, we are very intelligent people who always dress in the height of fashion.