>George,
>
>I'll go one step further and say that the UT should reconsider the decision about granting automatic membership to those who have done the most to help support it.
>
Kevin,

I haven't read the entire thread, so this may be information that has been stated elsewhere.

When it became public knowledge that MVPs got a free PUTM, it became a problem for Michel. So he decided to discontinue it. At the time, you could always tell an MVP by the color of his envelope on his replies. It was blue. That was his right. AFAIK, he, unlike Compuserve, received no support from Microsoft to off set the cost.

Michel, to his credit, tried to implement other means to award PUTMs to those who contributed. That partially survives to this day, in terms of the "stars" that are awarded. Unfortunately, this award (a PUTM for a period of time) was abused by some, and thus discontinued.