Paul,

>I see it as a reward for supporting Customers using the products, which benefits MS.

I think most of us do too, and it is perfectly fine too.

>I don't see it as a reward for blindly supporting MS, if they need criticising then who better to do it?

Of course the MVPs are best equipped to offer constructive criticism. But the "issue" raised in this thread was that it is a rare instance where a VFP MVP is seen to offer such criticism. This led to conjecture on possible reasons why this might be so.
>
SNIP
>
>If you've applied for the beta program and been accepted, then again you get the same feedback into the product beta that an MVP gets.
>
I understand that, and of course it makes perfect sense. I'm sure that people who have both the time and the inclination do apply to be beta testers.
My later messages in this thread were not concerned with 'beta input' but rather with encouraging our VFP MVPs to use the UT Wish List over the private channels for communicating their ERs. I would encourage the same (in the UT forum itself) for (non-beta) bug discussions and for general product criticism.

I've re-read this thread in detail. I am surprised at how many MVPs have participated in this thread and how many were fairly defensive and selected only specific portions to counter rather than to focus on the general basic perception(s) some offered. There was also a measure of TWISTING the words of others, a situation that arises from time to time here, to try to make something sound absurd.

For the record, I feel that the MVP program is very very helpful to the community at large (as well as to me personally) and I am most pleased that Microsoft has the program. But I remain surprised that our MVPs are always so quick to defend MS while criticism of MS is a rare event, even while it is mentioned in this thread that there is plenty of criticism of MS and VFP by our MVPs (but it happens in private channels).

Jim