Yup. I had been in the fandom for only a few months at that point, so it really was my first people-hate-X-that-badly. The warnings and DL?DR. make absolute sense in that period. (Sadly on the rare occasions I go back to ff.net, I still see "no slash" and DL?DR and other things that imply those aspects of the site culture still exist.

I didn't encounter that, but I was firmly in the gen-and-het non-wanky side of the fandom; I only really got to know slashers once I got involved with the Silmarillion side. Which pretty much proves your point about the separation.

Thanks for confirming it wasn't just Tolkien fandom that was wanky and weird in the bad way.