[CQ-Contest] ARRL DX - Self Spotting

[Edward Sawyer]

I am interested to hear the opinion of the DX side on this topic.  I was trying to self-spot a number of times without much success.
I tried on DX Summit.  The spot was posted.
I tried on DX Watch.  The spot was posted.
I tried on DX Heat and it stated that self spotting was not allowed.

What I found was that the self spot almost never generated any activity - maybe a couple of callers.  But then later (sometimes 10 mins or more later) a huge group of callers would respond to a spot.  The spot was always generated on the EU side of the pond.

I am thinking that most people have a filter set to only see EU side spots.  Is that true?  If so, then there is almost zero value in self spotting.  In fact its counter productive if people are now spotting less because they think we are self spotting so what's the value in spotting.

Any comments on this topic welcome.

Ed  N1UR