Another fandom staple deleted and fans don’t know how to act

This is the third very popular / fandom staple fic in my fandom that has been deleted in the past year. Every author has basically said the same thing— harassment and constant input/critique from fans has made continuing writing the fic or keeping it up unbearable.

Over the past years or two when these fics became popular, I’ve seen so many posts about how these fics are bad (BY NAME WITH USERNAME) and I know these authors have the platforms in which these posts are being made and probably see them. I haven’t been through the comments on the actual fics themselves in some time (and obviously can view them now) but the last chapter I read for one of them was around 40k and not even a day after posting, people were already commenting “update please!”

As if that wasn’t bad enough, not even 24 hours after the announcement of the most recent deleted fic, fans are making edits of it, making countless posts and videos about it, etc. and it all just seems like clout chasing off of a very real person’s very real distress and mental health struggles. And the comments are so insincere, saying stuff like “aww I hope author is ok, but I really need this fic asap someone send it to me” or “I’m so sad for author, but why delete it instead of do xyz”. They are also dropping this author’s username on multiple social media platforms and what I think is their real name. I hope they have deleted social media so that they don’t see this stuff.

I really hope the fandom learns from this and starts treating their authors better. They are real people behind these screens, not just a username or a notification in your inbox. Do better.