It's pretty common for something with a large following to have two entirely different but mutually valid experiences of its fanbase. That can emerge in pretty much all apparently incongruent reports in society. For example, in a salary thread here on HN, one person might say he doesn't know anyone at Google earning more than $250,000, and he knows 20 engineers, someone else will chime in and say she knows 20 people earning that or more at the same level, etc.