@majestyk and @frozenorangejuic yes clearly it was the comma that was in the way! thanks for pointing this out.
and wow! i was so wrong, i am a member now! i think that the forum where i read i need 50 points to become a member must have been incorrect or maybe the badges are worth more than it said because when i calculated what it takes, i was in the realms of 100 lols and 100 likes and such... thank you so much for helping me!
I would love to read your stories too, hope you will share them at some point. I am well on the way in my game, the third generation just turned teen and child. I am still lacking some essentials like a city hall but i do have a grocery store, a school/stadium, an art gallery (not that I ever use it for anything but i had one of my sims generate income by painting masterpieces so it seemed like the right thing to do lol), a hospital and even a graveyard. The ghosts of my founding sims bugged me that much!
I also have a lot of sims living in the neighbourhood because my original couple had 6 kids and i married them all to someone from uni, got them pregnant and moved them out. So it looks pretty lively right now :) I always find it so hard to have siblings move out and to decide which sims to keep playing...
edit: now why is the people-tagging still not working? strange