Screw it - I quit!

You read that right. I won't be fanficcing anymore.
For the past ... always, I have treated the authors and stories I have subscribed to as something of an obligation.
I approached them with the same attitude I brought to normal books - 'I got this because I like it, so I _will_ finish it'.
And that was fine - I drifted around a few quiet fandoms, subscribed to a fair number of authors who mainly were in the process of writing massive stories at a fairly sedate pace. I stayed away from the popular fandoms - Naruto, Harry Potter and the like. They received too many submissions; the good stories never got a chance to rise past the deluge of newer works and damned if I was going to wade through that crap myself.
And then Pony happened.
Now, at first, when it was just EqD, things were... okay. I'd pick a few of the top choices off there, and all would be well. It was a slightly higher amount of fiction than before, but still manageable.
But when FiMfic appeared...
Well, actually, it shouldn't have been too bad - FF.net was in the process of self-destructing, so I'd lost most of the fanfic sources anyway, the GDocs based fics... well, I lost most of the bookmarks for them, and DeviantArt? I go on DeviantArt once in a blue moon.
Hell, if I'd just stuck to strictly what appeared on EqD, I would have been fine. But that Featured Box... so tempting. And you say the author of that story I love has favourited other stories? Well, obviously I want to read those. And now someone else thinks a story is worth blogposting about? Sure, I'll read that. Ooh, and this one off the front page looks so interesting...
...
You get the idea. I was, in effect, trying to singlehandedly absorb the entirety of pony fiction. And music. And a goodly portion of art too.
And I felt bad that I wasn't able to. All these wonderful people, talking about these things - I want to know these things so I can talk about them too!
Well - no more.
I have deleted all my bookmarks to various fanfictions (with a few notable, and read, exceptions).
I have erased my entire backlog of notifications for unread chapters.
And I will no longer be assuming that, having once upon a time subscribed to a story, it is still worth my time.
From now on, if your story cannot be called to mind on receipt of an update notification, it will be removed from my subscriptions. You either took an eternity to update, or it simply wasn't all that good.
From now on, I will judge the worth of an author by a story they feel to be completed - if I like it, then I may follow their 'in progress' works.
And from now on, I will remember that the author is _privileged_ to have me as a reader, and should feel _honoured_ if I deign to bestow upon them some form of commentary.
It is the duty of the author to craft a worthwhile experience for their readers, and the readership is not obligated to do anything in return.
I forgot this once, and it almost led to my ruin. I shall not forget again.