Yeah, they'll defend that by saying that AO3's API is friendlier to that, that FFN and Wattpad are more difficult to scrape usable data from, and many older archives aren't accessible or don't exist anymore.
That doesn't mean the data from AO3 is representative, of course. It still has all the aforementioned flaws. They tend to just tack a disclaimer to that effect on it, and carry on anyway.
Re: wank containment area
That doesn't mean the data from AO3 is representative, of course. It still has all the aforementioned flaws. They tend to just tack a disclaimer to that effect on it, and carry on anyway.