I've noticed that online as well to be honest, and I'm getting genuinely exasperated as more and more slash stories keep popping up in my favourite fandoms. It's not that I have anything against slash, or gay couples, but it irritates me when writers make characters that AREN'T a romantic couple and thus ruin/disregard a heartwarming friendship (in most cases). There also seem to be far more stories these days that just have OTT hurt/comfort at the expense of a decent storyline, or even the characters being 'in' character.

Butting in to say "here, here!" I'll admit to sometimes reacting with a humph of dismay when the spnewsletter comes out and again the slash (incest, RPF, all of it) outweighs the gen stories by a great deal. I've nothing against slash at all but my true love will always be a well-plotted gen piece that could fit into the TV schedule without too much squinting.

And a big ditto about the OTT whumping in h/c. I'm an h/c junkie, but it really bugs me when the whole story seems to be based around some pretty unsurvivable hurt. Story? Who needs a plot? It's not the gratuitous hurtin' that makes me love that genre...