slots--never stopped for long in Las Vegas

don't know anything about donkey slots (sounds like a search term)-- but the slots could be the # of download spots each user sets for uploads (see prefs). You can't do much about that other than get on a network that has lots of users with lots of the files you want. If only a few of a lot are open--get lots. You can try fiddling by building up the best set of connections you can by deleting ones that return few results, even after several repeat searches.

Did you open the firewall and router for 6346, and force IP? Maybe slots = ports.
displaced over on the Acq boards is developing a little applescript that checks to see if you have an open channel to gnutella.

Cheers