Do you mean to move out? I've tried the ignoring method and it took a month. The friendship route was much easier and worked faster (like 1-2 weeks), except I've only done it with the ones I want to keep, so they're all still here.
If you mean ping just to talk to you, or for PWP, then make sure to talk to someone every once in a while. If you're walking around for a long time waiting for someone to ping you and no one is, it may be because you've been playing too long. Then when you talk to someone they tell you to take a break. They won't ping you in that period of time if you've been playing too long. Grrr, I really hope that made sense...it's hard to explain and I'm delirious with hunger atm. XD