https://web.archive.org/web/20030411092911/http://www.subreality.com/marysue/explain.htm
https://niqaeli.dreamwidth.org/144746.html (”on mary sue policing and why i cannot abide by it”)
https://astridv.livejournal.com/187934.html
https://sci-frey.livejournal.com/24200.html
https://sci-frey.livejournal.com/6954.html
I've simply decided that there's no shame in admitting to having a Mary Sue (or, to use nicer term, an avatar), as long as you don't expect the world to hail his/her adventures with unbridled enthusiasm. Mary Sues serve a psychological need: they make their creators happy. https://web.archive.org/web/20030401201021/http://www.subreality.com/marysue.htm (Emphasis added.)
I love Mary Sues and I think I always have loved Mary Sues.
I spent a lot of time on Mary Sue mocking communities***** when I was a teenager but, even back then, I had some inkling that I was doing it ~ironically: I really loved these characters in all of their unbridled enthusiasm for fandom. My first “real” undergraduate research paper was about self inserts/Mary Sues in Harry Potter fanfiction (it was 2007, after all) as fangirl power fantasies.
*****notably http://marysues.livejournal.com - a Mary Sue mocking/”reporting” community that, confusingly, links to the https://web.archive.org/web/20030401201021/http://www.subreality.com/marysue.htm, a pro-Mary Sue site(?)