Terry,

I do know that Beta programs and the like used to be reserved for a chosen few who had a clear responsibility to hunt for bugs and were assessed on that basis. Such participants certainly benefited, but it took a lot of work and there was never a monetary profit in it, even for we who found lots of bugs and got a free copy of the product. Getting a head start is the true value, but it comes at a cost.

It is also true that MVPs receive special access, privileges and rewards. I was attacked a few years ago for suggesting that somnolent "life members" and MSFT sycophants who contributed little were devaluing the MVP status into a reward mechanism for MSFT trustees. That does not seem to be the case today and it is good to see rewards granted to MVPs who assist others tirelessly in these forums. Both the VFP and dotNET MVPs seem to be selected on that basis.

Re foxISAPI: I'd advise you to bite the bullet and pay Rick Strahl some pocket money ;-) The active West Wind user community is itself enough to justify the purchase price IMHO.

As for priests: I agree it is tiresome to have prophets coming here telling us we can't see the sky is blue because we have our heads in the sand, but I'm not convinced it is done to try to snuggle up to MSFT- the most able and outspoken prophet always seemed to be at war with MSFT people as well as everybody else!

Regards

j.R