Right -- I don't exactly understand it but I try not to assume the worst, like you said -- probably not a clique mentality. I realized that there are plenty of times where I go in-depth praising a fic in private conversations with a friend, when I'm trying to convince them to read it. And often, the effort I put into that private conversation doesn't match what I write in comments.

So 1) I'd like to work on that XD Transfer, copy/paste some of that love over to AO3

2) Maybe for some people, that "it's a private recommendation" headspace carries over into public discord servers, whereas for me, it just doesn't. If I rec a fic, or say something nice about it in a discord server, it goes without saying that I'm putting that sentiment in the comments too... probably in more depth and detail. IDK! I'm not sure what my point was here XD