It doesn't work well for me, either. I ended up making on Raiyana's suggestion a kudos tracker; it has helped me feel slightly more positive about them than before. People leaving bunches of kudos at once is lovely!

some of the good writers moved on, jumped fandoms, just stopped writing, and Silmfic started moving in to occupy the space that opened up and I don't think it was always comfortable (or welcoming) for the LotR people.

That makes a bunch of sense. For all that we are all part of Tolkien fandom, it does seem like seperate fandoms at times, for better and for worse. Maybe the Amazon series will revitalize that part of the fandom. I hope so.