John,

>>If Michel does not sponsor a PUTM for MVP's, should he be allowed to use the MVP program has part of his advertsing machine? I say no...

If Michel's agreement or arrangement or understanding with MS is that he CAN promote the MVP program monitoring on this site, that's OK with me. How is that in ANY way connected to his providing a free PUTM?

I think he should, BTW, as a "thank you" to y'all, and that it's a bad business decision to alienate the helpers here (like the MS MVP fiasco), but I fail to get the significance of your tying the two things together and making it a crusade.

"...should he be allowed..." makes sense only if his agreement with MS was that he would provide a free PUTM, and he's now backed out of that. Aside from that, just who is supposed to do the allowing or not allowing? It is his business.

Kinda reminds me of the usual liberal slant to facing a problem: more control by government -- like the gal on Niteline last night advocating government certification of programmers to avoid problems like Y2K.

FWIW, Michel and any others listening... to summarize what I said to MS just a few weeks ago:

"The MVP's are helpers. Don't slap them in the face. Reward them, and you'll benefit in the long run."