All of this makes perfect sense to me. However, I am very out of touch with trends on AO3 or in new fandoms specifically. The incredible onrush of fans and the public nature of fanfic is still quite surprising to me; I came into m/m slash fandom around 2002 with a very different set of norms. Thank you for the update; am learning!

I am one who just read Riddlemaster! Glad to know you loved it too.