Self Publishing- Love it or Hate it?

I was surfing different sites today mainly ones with my novel displayed, looking for reviews and I came across some different discussions about self publishing. I was a little alarmed to see that a lot of people will not even give a self published novel a good look due to bad past experiences. I realize that some self published books out there are not the best but the same can be said about traditional published authors as well. I guess my question that I am left asking myself is was I wrong to choose this path? I love my book and know that it was done professionaly but it is hard not to be discouraged when the main stream readers won’t give your book the recognition it deserves. I admit I have read a couple of sb books that were not very good but that won’t stop me from checking out more, because they are out there. If it were not for the wonderful people that have sites dedicated to indie authors I think we would have been left out in the cold. My thanks and love go out to all of you that do such a great job with your blogs and help keep our voices heard!

What do you think? Have you self-published? Do you enjoy reading indie authors? How do we get rid of the bad rep?