>The truth is that events that are speakers only and no papers to take home are nowhere near as useful to me as something where I can hear the material once and then use the paper to follow up. I learn much better by reading than by listening. (I'm lousy at sitting still, as you can tell by every elementary school report card I ever got.)
>

You and JR are making different arguments, but your claims of "the MVP program isn't what it used to be, it's not as much about helping people" really seem (at least to me) to boil down to change and evolution and personal preference more than anything else.

On the paper issue - hardly anyone does paper these days. Commercial conferences produce DVDs and the free events have a good branding site (sqlSaturday) with the ability to pull down slides and demo code. (And most event organizers make sure that speakers post their slides by the end of the weekend of the event and even enforce it as a condition to speak there the next time).

In the download page of my website, I have detailed slide decks and demo code from my active presentations. People who attend my sessions know that I go back and enhance my presentations, based on feedback or just new ways I discover for covering things. That's why I personally hate the paper model and I know many others who do as well. If you prefer hard copy, ok, that's your preference - but that is definitely not the norm. Electronic versions provide much more flexibility.

I remember the big binders for the DevCons in 1995-1998. Candidly, they were physically thick and yet scant and had limited value. In fairness I do recall that your session notes in the binder were far more detailed and far more valuable than most. But hardly anyone wants them. They want electronic material.

As for the communities...last night I spoke at length with a well respected person who crossed over from the VFP MVP world into the .NET world. Initially the person made comments similar to yours and JRs....but then unsolicited, the person realized that the .NET and SQL communities have been just as powerful in helping people, it's just that they have evolved in different ways.

As for the SQL world, there are names like Pinal Dave, who has posted a ton of SQL performance tips on his blog. Adam Machanic has been a prolific blogger and speaker in New England on many SQL topics. Grant Fitchey has written several books on SQL optimization and offers free presentations that cover topics in his books. Chris Webb (over in England) is one of the most respected bloggers/speakers in the world when it comes to the SQL/BI tools. The Kimball Group maintains a website where SQL MVPs and other SQL authors contribute free material on implementing data warehousing patterns. SQL PASS (which, I believe, gets some support from Microsoft) offers a ton of free webcasts. Brent Ozar, Hope Foley, Aaron Bertrand, Alberto Ferrari, Andrew Brust, Joe D'antoni, Kalen Delaney, Kevin Kline, Kimberly tripp, Lynn Langit, Todd McDermid , Andy Leonard, Chris Webb, Jen Stirrup, William Pearson, and Chris Bell are names I can immediately cite, who have all provided great and meaningful content and have definitely "give their time" to helping others. Their contributes in the SQL world have been enormous. And those are just the SQL leaders I can immediately quote from memory.

And oh yeah, that guy named KG has done a few things as well. :)

And I almost forgot PluralSight, which offers an incredible amount of video content for a ridiculously low price. Not free, but extremely low.

I could go on and on. I'll say this in the nicest way I can - take a bigger look at the world around you. :)

I was a huge lurker during the Fox years (on CompuServe, at the conferences) and I remember all the great content from people like you, Les Pinter, Goley, Ted, Della, Levy, Black, Lisa Slater, Petersen, YAG, etc. The VFP community had strong leaders. Around 1996 I considered joining the fray from a VFP->Crystal perspective, but stayed silent until around 2004. My point is that other communities have strong leaders as well, with arguably even more technical content available (in fairness, because it's easier to make available, and the products they represent are more complex).

I'm not going to say that the SQL community or the .NET community help people "more" than the VFP community did. It's not a contest. But I will say that I think there is just as much effort in helping people now as there was years ago. So I 100% disagree with any claim that the MVP program is less about helping people. Here is where you and JR miss the point - the MVP program is about the MVPs - the quality of their work and their character and their dedication. Is the MVP program perfect? Of course not. But I was enough of a student of the Fox community in the 90's and I know the history of both the VFP community and current ones to say that the Microsoft communities are being served every bit as well now as they were years and years ago.

JR mentioned that justice can't simply be done, it has to be seen. Well, KG's corollary to that is that some people need to open their eyes a bit and see all the good content out there. :) A fairly observant person should realize that with a bit of study of free content in the SQL and .NET world, a person can assemble a research library at very limited cost that will equate to the content of commerical conferences/courses.

Is there comparatively "more" of a trophy mindset towards wanting an MVP status and the perks that go with it? That might very well be true. And I do know a few "one and done" folks who arguably shouldn't have received the award. That happens, but it doesn't detract from the existing strengths. So given the amount of good material being produced by MVPs, I really don't think it matters. As for those trying to curry favor by ingratiating themselves, I certainly won't say it doesn't exist - but the truth is that the requirements have gotten a big stricter, and it doesn't take aw