>I didn't want this to get lost in all the other messages about loosing the MVP status. For those of you who are getting fired, it's never easy to loose the one you love.

Let's not get too serious about it. :) Nobody got fired, mainly because none of the MVPs worked for MS. It's just in the way they put it. It sounded like "we don't need you anymore, we got our real staff now".

>But let me ask you, how much time will this free up for you at Dev-Con and other functions and during your daily life. I've heard more than one of you talk about having to do this or that for MS. Don't get me wrong, I'm just trying to ease your pain a bit. Try to look at the bright side. You all have earned the respect of the community before you became a MVP. Will this effect how the community sees you? No way that will happen. Will this take any knowledge away from you? You had it, before, that's the reason you got picked to be a MVP to begin with.
>
>Also let me ask, How is this going to effect the level of support here? I will fall over in a dead faint, if it effect this place at all. John, Ed, George, Nancy, Craig,.......... and all the others that I'm to lazy to type in, were here and providing help long before they became MVP's. They have stated here, on many occasions that they will continue to do that. I believe them!

You are right and wrong here. This MVP program shut down will not affect probably the time ex-MVPs spend here or elsewhere. But it will affect the quality.

Being "inside", I know the "history" of quite a few MVPs. I will not give any names, but:

Not all of them make big money. In fact, some of them are making some avearge or lower than average gain. This is one of the main reasons I admire many people here: their efforts to be/stay/become experts, to improve their knowledge, etc, even when they could not afford the almost mandatory information sources. Some of them improved the quality of their answer substantially after having the free MSDN subscription, books, etc.

You should know that a $50-80 book can be unaffordable at all to people living in some countries. An MSDN Universal subscription? It may be a dream in other countries. Is their fault they were born there? No. Is their merit they reached the expertise level they have? Clearly, yes! Is their merit they are willing to share their knowledge with others? Again, yes! Don't forget, MS didn't give them 2-4K a year. MS gave them access to some information sources that only helped them become better and better. It only eased their efforts. I have to say it here that I lived in such a country and it's VERY difficult to keep up without any good book, to learn everything the hard way, to discover everything by trial and error, etc. All my admiration goes to these people who continue to amaze me with their knowledge, while I know they don't have any of the resources that I have. Somehow, I still have some hopes that MS will not cut the MVP program everywhere in the world.

Are these incentives important, as $ value, for the big majority of MVPs? No, they wouldn't spend all those hours only for that. Probably all MVPs would do it anyway. But this doesn't mean all of them are willing to (or can) spend 2-4k a year to get access to those sources of information. Not having them, will clearly lower the quality (not the quantity) of their help. Almost obvious, this effect will not be visible in the short term.

Vlad