it's truly amazing how dry the ka*soo ficdom is, and I don't think the extent of it sunk in until I saw how CB fic readers interacted with CB fics

kd ficdom has evolved into everyone reading the same fics by the same authors over and over again, lamenting over the fact that all the good fics are from 2012, all while blatantly ignoring all the new/non-popular writers

and it's incredibly frustrating to see this manifested, esp when it comes to fic fests, bc there's more or less equal engagement for all fics while they're anonymous, but once reveals happen-

people exclusively crowd around the fics of the five popular writers in the fandom to lavish an absurd amount of praise on their fics while ignoring everyone who isn't established as a major writer

so it really takes away the joy of sharing your work when you know people only like your stuff when it doesn't have your name on it, and they only like it because they think it was written by one of the popular writers

which I think is why I see a lot of authors participate in fests once and then never come back, bc the kd ficdom doesn't care about them and doesn't care for showing any sort of appreciation beyond the same clique

and this is also symptomatic (as @hunnie_peach pointed out, very smortly), of the fact that kd fic writers do not read outside of their friend group. they don't rec fics from people outside their friend group. they don't engage outside their friend group

so it's this extremely tight knit circle jerk that has a wide fanbase and no interest in encouraging the already apathetic readers to explore the work of other authors