Awww, I know what you mean there. When I watched Leverage in the spring/summer of 2020, I deliberately went to both ff.n and AO3 and sorted by fic update date - and then carefully only looked at/read fics up to the date the next episode aired as I slowly watched through the show. It worked pretty well (though I never did actually finish reading the most recent ones on once I finished watching the entire show, and I haven't bothered to watch the new series so I'm just dodging fics for it by checking character/ship tags), but I can imagine it might be tricky otherwise.

So for the shows, at least (and maybe the films too, especially considering how recently the new Matrix one came out), it would make sense to make posts of the recs organized by time as well as keeping my posts organized by ship. Then there'd be options for the fan who wants to read one way or the other. It's nearly impossible to include any descriptions of the fics themselves if there are too many, so that wouldn't spoil anyone. And I always mark ships *somehow* so people who really don't like a particular ship don't have to read about it. If the recs are organized by something else (or like the tiny fandoms, sharing a post with other fandoms, so that the post is organized simply by fandom), then the major ships are listed beneath the rec in a list so the reader can make their decision as to whether to click or not.