So make new friends!
OOCly, when I joined the other place, I had one great friend, a couple of people I sorta knew. But the list just grew. I'm not even the type of person to like the style of the other place and yet the friends keep on growing. Some of them are here now, others stayed there, third party is LOAing and the likes. Don't really matter. Don't worry about old ties people bring into the place. If anything, that lets you meet more people at once. Ie. my great friend because of whom I joined the other place is how I got to meet a ton of people, all at once.
But yes, eventually we go back to the IC advice: Make new friends!