I've read a lot of excellent fics in fanfiction (including yours : )!). I've also read crap, and sometimes enjoyed it because it was heavy on the H/C and pushed all my buttons even if I could see it was not good.

I guess fanfiction is often criticized because it's not published, not official, and a lot of people don't know about it and have an uninformed opinion about it.

And like you said, hurt/comfort is a particular genre, it doesn't seduce the majority, it's more confidential. Like horror, you like it or not. I don't like horror, but I don't go judging those who do, I understand that, like you explained, it can be cathartic, or just plain fun.

I'm becoming more difficult to please now in my reading, and I don't read badfic as much as I used to (also, I got better in english, so I guess the bad writing is a lot more of an issue for me now !!)

Thanks for these discussions, it's interesting and enjoyable!