And of course, back in the day, gen fans were really at war with slashers; some threatened to report slashers to the copyright holders.

Very true, and a good point. I suspect it's like the Ray Wars or whatever: no one who wasn't there can truly understand the depths of vitriol and anger involved.

My first thought upon reading that author's note was, "Oh, I bet that ended up on fandom_wank." And then I remembered they didn't have fandom_wank when this was written. It was all very disorienting.