Preach it sister!! Very well said! I nodded my head through pretty much your whole post - except for the swimsuit old lady bit O_o - LOL!

I'm very picky too and I rely HEAVILY on summaries and warnings. I have a handful of people I know are prolific and/or write things I consistently like *snuggles you as one of those people* so I check their stuff first. After that I tentatively delve into other fics by other writers. I've just been burned too many times by a fic that sounded innocent enough and then hit me with some awful... whatever.

I think if we teach "newbies" nothing else, we should teach them to do concise, accurate summaries and specific, clear warnings. The best example I can think of, from an author who writes across MANY ships, is softly_sweetly. I enjoy several pairings that she writes, I run screaming from several others. But I know I can trust her to be straight up in her warnings / summary / pairing list. If she says, "Non-con, dark!fic, angst" you can take that to the bank. On the flip side, if she says "fluff, smut" you don't have to worry about six pages of grueling angst before the three fluffy lines show up.

I'm using her as an example only because her pairings are very diverse.

All of that to say, YES, if I like a fic, I'll do my best to comment (although I haven't commented on NEARLY enough of yours, sorry sorry!) but if there was some point that ended up turning me off to the whole fic, I'm going to go by my mama's advice, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

For me, I'm writing for the sake of writing. Not to gain a hoard of minion readers. Those are just a happy side effect. HAHAHAHAHA!!!

Edit: Last two things - (1) CONGRATS on the awards!
(2) I'm like you re: replying to comments. If someone DID take the time to comment, I want to take the time to tell them I appreciate their time & effort! Even if they just said: <3 :)