When did these "several years" take place, ColinWright? Was the Web already around? Was it before social media came of age? It's only been a few years since social networking really came on the scene. Maybe nowadays it'd be easier to find or form a community that would support the dreams and meet the desires you had when learning Lojban.
YouTube is particularly significant. Being able to hear and see speakers of a foreign language has got to be a tremendous boon for those interested in learning that language. (Yes, such resources were likely available before YouTube, but only professionally-produced resources, only for popular languages, and not free.)
I started learning Esperanto in 1998, but stopped studying after a few months, since college kept me very busy at the time. (I still remember many words, surprisingly.) Were I to pick up nowadays, though, I'm sure I'd be able find an astounding wealth of resources and people who'd spur me on. I'd expect a similar situation with Lojban (though on a smaller scale, since it's less popular.)
I started in 1988 and only finally gave up in 2006.
Maybe the new social media would help, but in truth, I doubt it. The IRC channels, wiki, email lists and occasional Skype call have existed for ages and still nothing has really changed.
If I had a meter square sheet of paper, divided it into centimeter squares and crossed off one per day, I probably wouldn't get to finish. I'm now not going to spend any of them trying to re-acquire lojban.
YouTube is particularly significant. Being able to hear and see speakers of a foreign language has got to be a tremendous boon for those interested in learning that language. (Yes, such resources were likely available before YouTube, but only professionally-produced resources, only for popular languages, and not free.)
I started learning Esperanto in 1998, but stopped studying after a few months, since college kept me very busy at the time. (I still remember many words, surprisingly.) Were I to pick up nowadays, though, I'm sure I'd be able find an astounding wealth of resources and people who'd spur me on. I'd expect a similar situation with Lojban (though on a smaller scale, since it's less popular.)