How important is placing well?

[K3MRI]

Contesting is fascinating. It costs us a pile of money to buy all the equipment, it eats up a tone of time, we need to follow restrictive rules, and guess what, we win nothing! All we do is ... That's what I'm curious about. Why do we do it? What motivates us to contest?

[WA2WMR]

The only contests in which I participate are Field Day and Straight Key Night (yeah, I know it's not a contest, but, other than FD, it's the only contest-like activity in which I participate).

Personally, I regard contests as a royal pain that totally destroys the contest weekend for anyone not involved in the contest.

[K3MRI]

Just now, WA2WMR said:

Personally, I regard contests as a royal pain that totally destroys the contest weekend for anyone not involved in the contest.

Let the (civil) disagreements begin. 😇

To be frank, I've always been torn. Growing up we had zero contests; contesting was just not part of my household. But when I started participating, recently I might add, I admit that I got a certain rush out of it. Hmm... On the fence, I guess.

[KD3Y]

I don't "contest" per say.   I make contacts on some of the nets for my own WAS map and QSL card interest
Unfortunatley, 20 meters has seemed to morph into the contest band lately and all I hear is guys screaming their call sign with an RST and then moving on to the next one.   I don't enjoy pile-ups of 100 hams all screaming into their radios at the speed of a TV commercial disclaimer. 

"W3GZZ I copy five nine.  How copy?  59?  Roger" , "WNXTZ I copy five nine.  How copy?  59?  Roger", "KXFTT I copy five nine.  How copy?  59?  Roger"....
that's all. over and over and over.  Like a recording.  And there's no way every dang station your talking to is 59.  They can't even slow down enough to take the time to give an actual RST.   I feel some of these contests are bordering on "pecuniary interest".  After all if I have to send you $4 for a cutesy certificate, aren't you really just selling certificates on the ham radio bands?

[K3MRI]

I'm only going to half agree with you. When I first came upon contesting, I was averse to it. It felt so pointless. I admit, however, that now I kind of enjoy it. There's a rush to it. Admittedly, my favorite thing is running a pile up. I love it when I have fifty people trying to get in. It's non stop. A couple of years ago, three of us, two on the air and one just doing the logs, had a pile up that lasted well over an hour. It was non stop. By the end we were exhausted, truly. So yeah, on the one hand I'm 'meh' about them, and on the other, if I am honest, I kinda like the rush 🤗