Hi John,

>If, as you say, people whose message count in UT is <5 during 2000 and similar in the MS groups are nevertheless selected by MS Support Professionals as the most suitable recipient of an award for technical assistance to others... QED.

There are a number of places that are monitored, not just the UT and the MS newsgroups. One place, for example, is the CompuServe forum (http://go.compuserve.com/MSDevApps) which is - along with the newsgroups - the place that is monitored since the creation of the MVP program. The UT as added later (in 1997, I think).

Christof