My main prodo shard is Origin, don't get much deader than that. But I also play on Great Lakes, Lake Superior, Catskills, and Lake Austin. This is just my personal take on each of those 4.
Great Lakes: Kind of a snobby clique based shard. I started UO there so will always play there a bit, but it does get hard to stomach the snobbery and arrogance at times. It probably has the largest population next to Atlantic.
Lake Superior: Great friendly folks. I call it the Tamer Shard. A lot of good folks there that are very helpful.......... Well except for this one guy that does way too much bank sitting there
Catskills: Again great Friendly folks and one of the better RP shards. Not the largest population but a solid community.
Lake Austin: Very much like Cats in the Community. I have only been infesting... errrr...... playing LA for about a Month now since it is one of the shards up for my shard shield picks, so I guess this would be the pre PERV full infestation. I like it on LA while not a huge population it is a active population. I am really enjoying LA and actually even playing with and helping others there. In small doses..... I am still primarily a Anti Social hermit type player at heart
Other notable shards IMO.
Legends: Not much good to say about Legends now days. Even though I spent most of my prodo UO life there. Too much drama and complaining and a very low population. It used to be great but is a very pale shadow now of what it once was.
Siege: Gets a solid 50%-60% of my game time and is my overall favorite shard. That being said Siege is not for everyone with the everywhere Fel Ruleset. Like any shard there are some really great folks and some real Aholes. The Aholes can be more annoying on Siege than Prodo. If dying now and then and getting dry looted is going to make you cry......... Siege is probably is not for you. Gotta play Siege with a different mindset than you play on prodo shards.
Chessy: a good shard that I visit now and then but just overall is not for me or where I want to put houses.
Origin: A very dead shard by any measure. For me being primarily a anti social solo player it is perfect. It is also a pre WW pub release shard. Gives you a week or more to figure everything out in a pub before it goes to rest of the shards. IE the last pub, I had 3,000,000 in soulbiners in a chest and 300k in the brit fellowship guy before it went world wide. There is a small community that seems friendly enough but I play the Anti Social Solo A Hole type there so largely ignore them.
Atlantic: Nothing good to say about that cess pool. I finally demolished my 3 houses there and placed them on LA a Month ago.
EDIT: I also move characters over to pacific. STILL LOOKING FOR THE PERSON THAT GOT my Soul Stones from the the house that went IDOC there
And the 6 MOnth GTC as a reward for their return still stands
I would play there more if my characters max skills were not mostly on those stone LOL. But Pac is also a decent shard and like most shards a much reduced population from years past. But the core shard regulars are overall friendly and welcoming.
Don't care if folks agree with me or not, these are just my opinions of the shards I live on and shield to visit now and then.