when it comes to the unfinished fics that haven't been updated in 3 years and had an authors note that said the next chapter was ready and would be out in a week and the author has no other social media that i can find (not naming names but i have like 3 fav fics like this), yes, I'd take the mediocre continuation half bc i wanna know the author is safe and half bc i have reread the entirety of the fic several times and i need to see where it goes as long as it makes sense.
oh i get that. it's always scary when there's no way to check in with the author too.
since my DC binge, i went back to ff.net just to scope around and see if i could find my old favs. luckily i managed to find some of them crossposted to AO3 and follow the authors' new works there, but it was hard going back in time and seeing so many authors i adored who were just... gone. one of my favorite authors, someone who honestly contributed a lot to my writing style regarding mystery and slow-burn thriller, had passed away.
obviously we never met and im not even sure i left comments on their stuff (i was pretty shy about it) but i raved about their stuff for weeks. i still remember it being the highlights of my month years ago. parasocial relationships yes yes yes, but seriously. the joy i get from getting emails after years, or seeing someone move their account and getting to see them interact again... it's not unnoticed!
(also yes, rereading the whole fic after an update is soooooo mecore i love it when i do that and then get re-obsessed all over again. its amazing.)