It's not that they were kicked off. The policy to provide free PUTM was not renewed by the company that runs this site.

We [sysops] did get a partially confidential e-mail explaining the decision which I will summarize in a new thread.

>I don't really want to get involved in this, but John does have a good point. One of the reasons the UT is doing so well is because MVPs are here and MS is honoring this site as a site that produces MVPs. Now that the UT is established, MVPs aren't needed anymore so they get kicked off. Not exactly a nice move...
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>Honestly: I don't care all too much, but I wouldn't argue John's point either.
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>Markus