No Fun

I try to get here to read up on what is going on in SL, but more often then not I get a 503 error when I click on a thread to read it. No Fun.
Old news, the gambling ban went in to effect just before I got called back to work for a couple of months. When I finally had the time to get back in to SL most of the places I used to hang out at were gone. lets face it, gambling was fun, so No Fun.
The one place I used to hang out at had a falling out of the "family" while I was working. When I got back there most of the people I liked talking with were gone; and I can't find them. The place is deader then a tomb now, like the soul got sucked out of it. I get group messages all the time for the place, but it seems every other one is "the sim is back up". No Fun.
When I use the search to find out where every one is at and see what they are up to, I end up teleporting to some camper paradise where there is actually nothing going on. No Fun.
When I try to build in SL now I have one problem or another, ether my prims wont rez, or if they do I can't delete them; odd prims laying everywhere that simply refuse to delete with out me logging out and clearing my cache. No Fun.

So just what happen to the fun in SL?

And now I can't even post this thread, every time I try I get that dambed 503 error. So I'll copy it to a note pad page and try to post it again latter. No Fun.

Here you go Manstan. Watch this video and we'll sing it together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOVgNIp0EeU

Wow I got several 503s before I could post this.

I found the gambling no fun, although I did find some of the gambling dens fun to visit before bots became real common. Some had dance floors where people trying to have fun would dance and chat when they got tired of gambling. Some were amusing looking builds. Some were good for flying in, or had gambling machines that were good to jump on and over.

For enjoying building, scripting, doing things that involve uploading textures, etc. I suppose one should try to find the time of day that has the lowest concurrency compatible with your own schedule to visit SL at.

One can never count on people staying in a convenient spot for visiting or continuing to exist.

Some of the fun of SL is novelty, so after you've seen millions of prims of various shapes with various textures and the newness wears off it is only natural for it loose some of its appeal.

I think the widespread use of bots is driving real people away from some types of sites that use camping. I supposed it would be related to the purpose of the site, if it's a site with a non-social function like a store, using campchairs that get filled with bots might not drive away real customers, but it you are trying to draw people to a socializing scene, filling it with campchairs that get filled with bots is likely to make folks that show up there only to find no action try to remember not to go back.

There are other virtual worlds in progress one can try. If you speak German you might find Papermint a nice place to investigate.

===========
Quantity 2 503 errors in posting this so far

sorry dude. i hope you find new friends and new places to hang.

One of the problems with finding fun spots is, well, I love horror, I'm a goth fan. But some where along the way goth has gotten confused with BDSM, and it is real difficult to find a goth hangout that isn't full of BDSMers. Or to find a place that isn't a shoot them up RPG sim.
It is also No Fun trying to find a place to socialize, as most places listed in the search are listed by number of people there, which means that it is mostly bots, and not really anyone to socialize with.
And if you do find a place with people to talk with sooner or later some griefer shows up to spoil it for everyone.

It just seems to me that in the past 4-6 months, something has sucked all the fun out of SL.

There is still plenty of fun to be had in SL! You just have to find it - and that is part of the fun

Sounds like a normal cycle to me. Things get stale once in a while for everyone, I think. I deal with it in different ways. Anywhere from abstaining for a week or so to going into my friends list and selecting "do not show online status" (to all but a very select few), changing my skin, shape, color of my hair, dressing style and haunts. Sort of restrikes the fire for me.

It'll probably pass soon.

Doesn't sound much different than RL to me. What was once THE place to see and be seen eventually becomes dull and everyone talks about nowhere to go. Eventually you find a new bright shiny to hang out in.

Now that gambling is not around it does sound like you're willing to try other clubs, but just haven't had any luck. Yeah, hard to get around them bots. You need to start asking around. There's been some threads recently with some great recommendations. Do a search through old threads, through it may take some time with all the 503 errors.

Go to the Forum Cartel Hangout. The number of places that people there go to hang out is very diverse. You're sure to get some good recommendations.

Good luck.