Self-Publishing authors. Are they good or bad?

So there has been sooo much trash talk about a certain self-published author...errr...well...trash talking herself. Not only did it give some people bad impressions about self-published authors but it may have given some authors bad impressions about reviewers. I would like to state as a reviewer myself I find I have had people denounce me, degrade me, and be completely demeaning about reviewers. I love my job. I love reading books and exploring worlds that I have not experienced until I picked up new genres. Take Steam Punk. I have never read it and I was not sure if I wanted to. Then I was given a novel that was not only a Steam Punk novel but it is self-published through Smashwords. I was sooo pleasantly surprised. Check out my review of The Adventures of Miss Upton and the Sky Pirate by C.J. Archer.
http://www.coffeetimeromance.com/BookReviews/theadventuresofmissuponandtheskypiratebycjarcher.html