The "fast fashion" values that are put on fanfiction these days are truly a study in how consumerism works in a space that's meant to be a community. Back in my early fanfiction days (2008-2012ish), fics flourished because people would flock to read and comment without a care for how quickly the fic was updated or if the fandom was "in season" (aka the show was actively airing new episodes) or not.
It didn't matter if the author took weeks or months or years to update, because they could trust that the readers would still be there. Whereas these days, you have people asking if a fic is "abandoned" if it hasn't been updated in 3 months. There's a general lack of patience from readers who want the next update now, and are more than willing to comment as much on fics. In fact, for some authors, the only comments they get are from readers demanding the next update.
There used to be such a sense of community amongst authors too! Writers used to create "twin AUs" when they shared a faceclaim, they were eager to explore each others' takes on popular characters or even hear their plans for their fics. Although there is still some community to be found, it's few and far between, with a lot of authors preferring to keep to themselves or feel they have to "market" their fics tirelessly to even get interest from readers.
Anyway, all of this to say, it's a shame that fanfiction, like many other creative industries, has become more about demand than anything else. Fic writers are constantly told "write for yourself!", but a lot of us crave interaction with others within our fandom, and that naturally comes with a desire for validation. It's "write for yourself" but it's not "telling readers to be fucking patient and treat writers like they're human beings and not writing machines who operate solely for their benefit without them having to give even a comment back".
