when i recommend stories, i generally include whatever thoughts i have about how good they are, or what their flaws are, even if they're very good. sometimes i don't feel the flaw is worth mentioning. frequently i don't go into it in great detail, but i like to characterise what it is generally because different problems bother different people, and i believe some would want to read it anyway and some wouldn't.

as for how i pick what to rec anyway, i sort of imagine that i'm picking out stories for someone who gets all their reading in the fandom from recs. it's a question of should they read it. sometimes even if i feel that the bad flaw outweighs the brilliant part (making the story more bad than good) i'll recommend it if i think that the brilliance is important or unique enough--has something to say that people ought to hear.