I was also one of those people who checked a gabillion times to see if Swollen was updated and I do agree with what everyone said. I tend to ignore mechanics when I read, unless i'm proofing for people and I have stopped doing that. When I critque it is mainly plot and storyline. I take into account a few things when I read a story and one of them is the age of the writer and if English is their first language or not.
It might not be fair to pigeon hole with age but if you are 16 and this is your first fic, i'm going to ignore a lot of the grammar errors and plot problems because they are young and it's their first. If you are 30 and this is your 40th story, it's a little different.
A good story is a good story though, so if it's lacking on grammar and has a lot of weird things in it I can easily overlook that if it's a great story that draws me in.
And popularity is a weird thing. I know a lot of people still associate me with Mizpah and to date I really do think that was my most popular story but it's just a huge pile of flaming pooh as far as i'm concerned lol