Craig,

So I conclude that I was close to the mark as regards NDA and it's impact.

Let me now discuss further the "NDA prohibits discussing things that happen in the private newsgroups and other forums"...
It would be a small step with huge implications for someone to puprosely mention something in such a (private) place simply to assure that it was never discussed in public by the participants. Then, opinion or not, a signer may well feel at risk of breaching the NDA.

I should also say that I don't think that the vast majority of MVPs use the NDA to wiggle out of saying something. While no doubt some might, I feel that the motivation is far far more likely their desire to "do the right thing", which in this case would be to honour their NDA committment.
I assume you can see the simple problem here. If one is not permitted, due to NDA, to discuss anything mentioned in a private channel communication then ANYTHING mentioned in that private channel that is discussed by them in public breaches their NDA. This is perfectly fine and well and good for Microsoft, but it is less than helpful to either the MVP him/herself or to the community at large.

Maybe you should suggest a change to the private channel communications practises - that anything subject to NDA be clearly marked as such in each and every message/thread to which it applies. That way it would be clearer to y'all what can safely be discussed in public and what cannot. Right now an MVP might have an opinion on a subject BUT if it has ever come up in NDA discussions that opinion is not discussable by him/her. That would change if it was clear as to just which subjects are NDA and which are not.

Jim

>You are correct in that the NDA prohibits discussing things that happen in the private newsgroups and other forums. However, it does not prohibit an MVP from speaking his opinion . I will agree, some MVPs use the "sorry...NDA ya know..." far too often. I've used it, but tried to avoid getting into conversations where I would have to say it. IMO, it's better to not say anything at all rather than say "I know something about that, but I can't tell you".
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>>No I haven't, and never expect to have a need to.
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>>BUT... I have seen several MVPs cite NDA as a reason that they can say nothing on an issue. And I have heard several MVPs cite that stuff discussed in the private back-channels in under NDA. And I did see, just recently, a suggestion that even discussing the general workings of the MS group responsible for KB Articles is covered by NDA. Man, if one feels (or worse, knows) that discussing in general terms a MS departmental process is NDA-covered then I can't imagine what a NDA doesn't cover!
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>>It's not me, Craig, who uses "sorry...NDA ya know..." as a reason for staying mum, it's MVPs. And it is their promiscuous usage of it that leads to the comments I wrote.
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>>So it comes down to... regardless of what a MVP NDA might actually say, it's interpretation is deep and wide by its signers and leads to (self-imposed or otherwise) muzzling which means that the "community" loses in the end.
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>>Jim
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