Hi Nancy

Boy, does cut/paste ever make a mess of the message formatting! I've tried a crude fixup.

Getting to the "meat" of the issue. . .

I suppose that this is one of the ways that the MS intends to 'get closer to their customers'. The "more contact with Microsoft support professionals
and guaranteed response times suggests that, but I wonder how they will identify themselves,
how they will "guarantee" response time, and just what that gaurantee will be???
Seems to me that they likely will each personally be 'responsible' for a message they "take" and that we will
therefore miss out on the wide variety of responses we currently enjoy with various MVPs all offering responses.
I also wonder if the UT is included or excluded???

Oddly too he says: "Microsoft will redirect their investments
>previously made in the MVP Program.
Have you got any idea as to what "investments" - specifically people count - that MS might be expending on the MVP program?
Personally, I can't see it being that many, especially on any kind of full-time basis!
Sure there are freebies, but that entails a special mailing list and a minor loss of revenue. I suppose that "evaluation" of
candidates could be a tad burdensome, but here again software to extract and list messages by candidates along with
one person doing detailed review and recommendation (and probably only quarterly too) hardly seems extensive/expensive!

Personally I have found MVP contributions to be invaluable, though in some cases I felt that some people
became far to MS-centric and far too MS-criticism-sensitive once they achieved the status. As said earlier,
most useful was the variety who responded, generally with different slants, etc.

MS is cutting off their nose to spite their face. We will all lose by this unless they have some
genuinely WONDERFUL replacement for it. I just cannot see that. The process will now become "managed"
and we all know what that means to a "service" like this.

I wish you all well and truly jope to see a reversal of this position even though I know that I would never be a canduidate myself.

Cheers,

Jim N

>Hey, all-
>I'm the source of the rumor. I've been monitoring the MVP Coffeehouse tonight, and it appears to be true that MS is shifting
their public support gears away from the MVP program. Uhhhhh, their whacking us, actually. Here is the email that *some* MVPs
received tonight--not all, though, and no VFP MVPs that I know of--

>Thank you for your past participation in Microsoft technical newsgroups.
>Your participation and contributions have been greatly appreciated.  In
>light of your participation, we would like to let you know about certain
>changes that will soon be taking place in the technical newsgroups,
>including the elimination of the MVP Program.  Each year, Microsoft customer
>participation in the newsgroups has grown and we expect this to continue.
>Due to customer feedback and requests for more direct Microsoft involvement,
>we are changing our newsgroups strategy.  Effective 12/1/99, we will be
>moving to a program in which technical newsgroups are staffed by Microsoft
>support professionals.  The MVP program will no longer be in operation
>effective 12/1/99.
>
>This shift in focus in the newsgroups will allow us to respond to customer
>requests for more contact with Microsoft support professionals and
>guaranteed response times.  Microsoft will redirect their investments
>previously made in the MVP Program to the newsgroups overall and driving
>customer awareness of this valuable resource.
>[...snip]
>Please contact me at support1@microsoft.com.
>Thank you for your support.
>
>
>Joseph Lindstrom
>Director Business Development
>
>If you feel strongly about what an MVP has done to help you in your work, feel free to send Mr. Lindstrom email.  
Of course, I should say I don't have *permission* to give out this email address. ;-)
>
>As John says, don't go psychotic...it's not VFP.  There are an unbelievable number of MVPs all over the world 
in all areas supporting people.
>
>Speaking for myself, it's been an incredible honor to be an MVP.  It's always been with the knowledge that I've gained much more 
from the support of this community than I've put in to it.  All the MVPs are unanimous that we will continue providing exactly 
the same level of peer support we always have.  
We just don't have to be polite anymore. < bg> Just kidding!
>
>Indeed, there are many who aren't recognized "official" MVPs, but who are never-the-less.  A few here come immediately to mind: 
Erik, Nick, and Mark McCasland.  There are many others.