Trust me, if I was able to write code, I’d be working on a few projects for AFF, based on the number of people who are asking for the same thing: recognition that their stories are being read.
Part of the problem with reviews, and I’m opening a can of worms here, I know, is the ever-popular cancel culture mentality.
It’s unfortunately the case that some writers do NOT respond well to anything other than a complete squee. If you aren’t gushing about their cleverness, or the adorableness of their characters, or the genius of the pairing they chose from their fandom, the reaction to the review will be either a deletion of the review, a huffy author’s note mention of people who can’t accept artistic quality without complaining, or a combination of both. Even the mildest of questions can provoke a fit of pique from these writers, and after a time, most reviewers will quietly move on to another story. For myself, I adore constructive criticism. Tell me what didn’t work for you, because that’s how I can continue to hone my own writing. Squeeing about my work tells me bugger-all.
On the other hand, we have reviewers who, quite simply, can’t write a review. A personal attack on the writer is not a review; it is a personal attack on the writer and deserves deletion of the review and quite possibly the reviewer’s account as well. A review berating the inclusion of something that was quite clearly covered in the story tags, tags which the reviewer managed to overlook in their entirety, is not at all helpful to the writer, and only serves to highlight the reviewer’s own lack of mental acuity. As an example, I detest scat. If a story is tagged for that particular content, and I read it anyway, I have NO right whatsoever to berate the author for having scat in the story. I’m the idiot who ignored the tags, so shame on me for being feckless.
The biggest issue for me is always going to be the motivation for me to write. Do I write to collect dragon prints, or hit points, or kudos? Or do I write because the stories in my head won’t go away otherwise?