No, it's not that there aren't the fans. I think the number of people who have read some significant number of Heinlein books and might care to discuss them reaches the millions. That's always been part of the faulty thinking - that if we form a group or a site or an org, all we need to do is publicize it and the sheep will flock in.
No, it's the intersection of those people and those who are comfortable and able to discuss online that's small. In the olden days, it took a fairly tech-savvy person with a somewhat rare online connection to reach Usenet and make use of it. Services like AOL and predecessors were closed groups and didn't attract the techiest or sf-iest crowds. The internet in general seems to have an IQ of about 76, so while there are billions of users, the number of them who are interested in Heinlein and capable of/interested in ongoing discussion is very, very small.
I'm out of the Heinlein organizing game. But I suggest that all efforts consider the pool of participants small and elite, and create solutions and programs with that in mind - NOT with the idea that if you do it long enough or loud enough, it will become some much larger group. Hasn't yet. Probably never will. And that's a shame.
But as you say, the number of people who have heard of Heinlein seems to be very small indeed - much smaller than the book sales would indicate. I still wear my Heinlein Hero t-shirt in public from time to time. Since I started wearing it around 2000, I've had a $20 in my pocket, which I planned to hand to the first person who engaged me in significant conversation about old Bob. I still have the 20 - a very few people have asked, a fewer still have said something like "Heinlein, I think I read his book in high school"... but not one person has crossed the low bar and won the prize.
|
