I can't tell whether it's a trend, but these problems certainly exist. I can't imagine what might be done about the sloppiness and carelessness, though, because the writers often seem to excuse it with the words, "It's just for fun." Which is great. I think writing should be fun. But I've never understood the attitude of equalling "doing something for fun" with "not giving my best". If people play football, play the piano or have some other hobby, do they also don't give their best because it's just for fun? I doubt it.

But with other hobbies they might not receive an instant and often glowing gratification, which might be another problem. When does one ever see that a story doesn't get loads of great reviews? Apart from the fact that I'm not a fan of these star ratings in the first place, when does one ever see a story that has less than 4.5 stars? Every writer and every story are hailed as being great. And while this might be politically correct, it's a completely meaningless procedure. It's doing a disservice both to the truly great writers and to the writers who still have much to learn.

As for recommendations, I rarely follow them. It has happened too often that writers whose fics I admire very much have recced stories that I thought were very badly written.