Where do the nice people hang out?

I quickly learned to avoid the (Mature) areas, even though it seems SL is predominately a virtual sex site. Am I wrong? Where do the nice people hang out?

I am sort of afraid to talk to anyone since, I saw some jerk remove his clothes and then abuse this poor woman who was trying to help him find a casino. And then when I was wondering around the darkwood somebody im'ed what the hell was I doing. Is this typical behavior? I mean I have only been online twice!!

I am an artist in RL and thought it would be fun to have a SL gallery, etc... but am now losing interest.

Some of the nicest people in SL hang out at The Shelter

Travis also tends to frown on people taking off their clothes, although it does happen to every newbie at least once by accident....

As Isablan said, go to the Shelter. It's in a mature sim but so are a lot of other places that aren't sex dens. If you explore you will find a lot of nice places where people generally keep most of their clothes on and don't walk around making wolf howls.

Don't lose interest. There are a lot of artists and ALL kinds of fun pursuits - you will love SL if you give it a chance.

Well ... the kind of activity that you describe is fairly rare in my experience (I've seen it, but I've seen it only perhaps a handful of times since I started in December 2004). Mature areas are kind of the norm, but people are usually well-behaved, and in all honesty, the quality of people you will find tends to be dictated more by which places, Mature or otherwise, you're visiting than anything to do with the "Mature" label itself. I would guess you've either chosen the worst places to go or just had some very bad luck.

Then, too, how you deal with others has a great impact on how they deal with you. I don't mean to say you deal poorly with people (you may have just had bad luck), but I'm struck by the fact that some people "find" horrible people everywhere and have mute lists a mile long, while others find horrible people only rarely and seem to get along fine.

Just saying.

The Lost Gardens of Apollo is one of my favorite places. It is beautiful. There are romantic spots for couples to snuggle, but sex and nudity are not allowed. I have never been hasseled there. I met a very sweet guy there and we had a wonderful conversation, although it is more of a walk and fly and enjoy the scenery place than a gather for chat place.

Don't give up. I have met some wondeful creative and artistic residents.
-Sylvia

I hang out at Club Republik, the art galleries, and most of the live music venues. The people in secondlife that have been the coolest in my opinion are the musicians, performers, and artists.

Thanks to all of you for the encouraging responses!!

So where are the most art galleries you mentioned (doubledown)?

And Alex, could it be because your av is a guy that you haven't experienced what I did? My husband thinks so but I hear what you are saying about finding what you expect.

Contact Sasun Steinbeck. She has created a device that is a tour of all the art galleries in SL. It'll take you from gallery to gallery to gallery.... I think Sasun even mentioned that there is a 'group tour' feature.

Also, when you get to one gallery, Sasun has a current list of all the art galleries in SL.

This Tuesday: Nov 14, starting at 8pm there is a big gallery opening at Enigmatic Artworks. (I'm DJing )

Thanks, Doubldown, I will check it out.

Course I have a G3 mac, and a husband who is addicted to City of Heroine, so I gotta wait till he's overdosed...

good luck with the djing!!

I met some very nice people at Filthy Fruno's gallery and he is a very good painter. Don't be put off by the name, he is a nice guy.

lol, I MIGHT think you were kidding... thanks so much, I will check it out.

Dearly Darlings

The ol' Cow's top five:

Second Life Support Lotto in Arosa
The Shelter in Isabel
The Blue Note in Mocis
Heartland in Heartland
and of course my house in Green!

Caledon, Teal, Isle of Wyrms, Slate, Apollo, Natoma, ...

There are plenty of nice places with nice people...

As you're an artist in RL... one of the best ways to meet other artists is to explore. If you find something well made, inspect it to find the owner, and peek at the owner's Picks list for places they recommend.

Do that a few times and you're sure to stumble into several creative types you'll have something in common with.

Happy Tinkering! =)

Your assumption is incorrect; my av is female. Remember, Alex is a unisex name.

Edit: Also, I have experienced it. I was in fact harassed/stalked for an entire week once (during which I repeatedly and frantically tried to get the Lindens to intervene), and twice I've been treated rudely for no better reason than my lifestlye (D/s) choice. Additionally, I've been attacked by the odd griefer here and there, just like everyone has. However, these incidents, however unpleasant, consistently represent the exception rather than the rule, at least for me. The overwhelming majority of the time, I experience none of these things.

IM me any time I'm on. I enjoy meeting new people.

suffugium.. highly reccomended.

Someone mentioned Heartland - and I second that. It's country bar and some of the nicest people I have met, I have met there. I see or experience the odd stalking or griefing now and then but the good far outweighs the bad in my eyes Of course, with all the lag, even the griefers are struggling LOL. Enjoy your SL experience and feel free to IM me in-world anytime.

Wow, I admire your fortitude in sticking with SL after that experience!! And sorry about assuming Alex was a male av... Gender typing is so annoying... Oh and what's a griefer? Sounds like someone obsessed with death, which, can that happen in virtual life? Well I bet it 's not the same...

A griefer is anyone whose goal is to amuse himself or herself at the expense of the fun and/or happiness of others. Griefers do things like attack people with scripted weapons in non-combat sims for no reason whatsoever, drop and leave annoying items on other people's property, or put security orbs on their property with extremely short warning times (or no warning time at all) that push you or teleport you home when you wander, unsuspecting, into their little minefields. Those are just some examples -- obviously, there are other forms of griefing, but you should have the general idea.

And thank you for saying that, but really, what I was trying to get across is not what an awful experience I had (believe me, I've been through much worse in my life than a week of online harassment) but rather that yes, I've had the odd bad experience, but on the whole, I don't find people in SL to be like that. In other words, I'm trying to answer your question by saying that the nice people are all over, and if you've run into some bad eggs, believe it or not, they're the exception, not the rule.

That's all.

I am nice gentle guy who is creative, just like playing with my prims and sometimes exploring.
I have no interest in cybering just friendship.
Look me up perhaps we can swap teleports of favorite spots and hang out.
I have been trying to make a park and just put caslte up in sky, figuring out things myself but I can't figure out where the elevators are and security door that was suppose to come with my mansion. LOL
In real life I have been involved with bdsm, alternative scene. I am gay, I am not interested in dating. I have really little interest in doing it online or offline right now but I can offer friendship.

Try Caladon for a peaceful and interesting time, there a currently 8 sims with one more in development, the sim owner Desmond Shang does not tolerate trouble makers.

However it is Victorian in theme so if you stay around you might want to dress in theme....hence my avatar is better dressed than I in real life!!!

I agree, there's a discernable element of drive-by redneck-ism going on, and it's sharply worsened lately. People with no history of contact with minorities are wandering around with their hearts on their sleeves (to put it politely): I expect the overflow from sex-positive to merely mature areas as described by the OP is the flip-side of what us minority players are seeing.

it may nost strictly help to observe this, but my recent experience suggests that the more thoroughly hardcore a fantasy sim, the more polite the inhabitants: something about authentic sexual expression scares off the hazers/griefers/brats - to a degree.

Artemisia: That sort of behavior can be expected in a game where players have complete free will. It just means you have to put a little effort into finding the good, unpolluted things. Once you do, I promise you, you'll be amazed you missed it all at first

Artemisia, Caledonians are not uniformly nice, but we're all fairly polite, and we love new people....

...On toast.

Feel free to come by and visit; our ninth sim is being terraformed right now.