"The X-Files" also "caught on with viewers who wouldn't ordinarily consider themselves sci-fi fans". While Carter argued that the show was plot-driven, many fans saw it as character-driven. Duchovny and Anderson were characterized as "Internet sex symbols". As the show grew in popularity, subgroups of fans developed, such as "shippers" hoping for a romantic or sexual partnership between Mulder and Scully, or those who already perceived one between the lines. Other groups arose to pay tribute to the stars or their characters, while others joined the subculture of "slash" fiction. In the summer of 1996, a journalist wrote, "there are entire forums online devoted to the 'M/S' and Scully relationship". In addition to "MOTW", Internet fans invented acronyms such as "UST" meaning "unresolved sexual tension" and "COTR" standing for "conversation on the rock"—referencing a popular scene in the third-season episode "Quagmire"—to aid in their discussions of the agents' relationship, which was itself identified as the "MSR".