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[Starver]

Personally I set up bedrooms for everyone[1].  It isn't easy, it can be pretty[2].

I've experimented with dormitories (and barracks, for the military) and while they're quicker to set up they don't 'satisfy' me so much.  I deal with "so far unbedded" dwarves with leaving one or two of the latest rooms I've just a bed installed in as unassigned, at least for the duration.  Until I've got enough bedrooms to cover absolutely everyone, at the pop-cap limit, then my job is done.  (Barring the next few unexpected sprogs.)

[1] Including children and babies.  Basically anyone without the "I already have a [bed]room" colour on the assignation screen.  When the Mayoral position switches back and forth I may seek out the less prestigious room and swap with the previous incumbent, but if it flip-flops enough I just let the current mayor keep both of their holdings for their term...

[2] I usually work with a heavily grid-constrained layout.  If you accept Manhattenesque layout as 'pretty', then the rooms fit well into it.

[Uggh]

are you guys sure sharing dining rooms causes social interactions to increase? and how do you guys keep loose animals from wondering around dieing if you have no meeting area? (and dont say penning, thats not practical when you have several hundreds of animals later and have to scroll through a list including caged others and invaders)

As said above, the lower the chance to meet, the lower the chance of socializing.

For the penning, I have an addon installed that enables a search function in the "assign animal to pen" menu which makes it much easier to keep them where they should be.

Btw, in addition to the personal rooms I also have several meeting areas distributed over the fortress that attract the non-penned animals as well as the occasional lonely dwarf. They are mostly used by pets, dwarves seem to prefer spending their time in their own dining rooms.

In summary, there are so many places for the dwarves to spent their scarce free time that they don't meet each other very often.

[Oaktree]

I like doing bedrooms for my dwarves for the happy thoughts and a general area the worn clothes go.

Per the socialization issue I have a large dining room, fairly large garden/statue hall/memorial hall, and also tend to have most (if not all) dwarves drafted into a militia squad within a few years of the fort's founding.  A party occurring is mainly due to a child starting one, or possibly a "cadre" industrialist dwarf who has not been tasked within his specialization for a while.  And eventually even the cadre dwarves are put in a squad for some basic defense training and often getting put through a coinstar room for armor use training and getting better physical stats.

[Backfill]

Besides modding out clothes... I've considered issuing every civ the 'robe' or cloak' items for clothes  and renaming it to 'clothes' or 'uniform' or somesuch to simplify things and still reflect the elements and damage mitigating effects of clothing in the game and the 'omg i'm naked' negative thoughts while reducing clutter and such.

Probably solve the problem with bedrooms collecting fort-breaking quantities of socks protected by such inalienable property rights enshrined in dorfen law.

[Jenniretta]

They usually aren't worthwhile, they increase happiness but if you have a nice communal dining hall that's been smoothed and engraved, enough alcohol, and a half decent cook, then odds are no one will be unhappy anyway. If you are having issues with happyness, mass-bedrooms can be better than an individual room for each dwarf family. Just dig out an area and cram beds into it until it's full, then make each one a bedroom. Dwarves still get the benefit of their own bed, but it takes up a lot less time and space to comfortably house a couple hundred beards.

I like to make rooms for my dwarves, just as a personal preference, but I don't know that I've had a fortress where individual rooms have made a noticeable difference in tantrums/unhappyness problems. It's just very easy to keep the dwarves happy with food and a place to eat, the biggest change Ive noticed is more "ecstatic" dwarves vs just "happy."