Yes, each generation of fans would have different familiarities, as would, these days, each faction. I thought that some stories might have persisted in being recommended to newbies, as they were to me, and so stayed a common currency...

A few weeks ago, I read someone say that it was too bad that the old common FK archives weren't organized such that she could find her favorite pairings automatically; instead, of course, they are organized the old way, by author, and at most tagged by story type. As a newbie being introduced to fanfiction back when, I learned to seek out stories by author, not pairing, and I keep thinking that this seems to be a marked change in approach to fanfiction by fan generation. I'm not saying it's bad, just different and attention-catching.