Most of them didn't know we existed, either. In 1999, the top recruiter for the American First Day Cover Society signed up all his new members via the Internet. Maybe the USPS wasn't that far off, after all. You can't ever be certain that what you're seeing on the Internet hasn't been electronically enhanced or actually exists. Chat rooms are fun, but not as much fun as sitting at a stamp show hospitality suite or a show hotel lounge with a few of your philatelic friends.
People still collect gramophone cylingers, cathedral radios and old railroad timetables.
They'll still collect stamps, too.