Roy clarifies his position on the whole Rory thing...(incidentally, Rory, I tried to email you but it bounced back)
My response, well, I posted an ill concieved post yesterday about the whole debacle which I have since withdrawn. Here's the response only response I'm willing to give on the whole thing - I will not enter into a debate on this - sorry!
I will never be made an MVP - so I have no vested interest in this apart from the desire to form a strong .NET community.
Sad thing is, the MVP title is worth something it's just not transparent enough and the few bad ones can tend to sour the whole barrel. It would be really nice if the community was more involved in the selection of MVPs and once they were announced, the reason for the selection was made more public.
Some current MVPs do seem to have been awarded for purely PR / other reasons - I hate to say, bribe but for some it does look that way. So, what does everyone think, should this be more open? Do you think that writing a book should justify you being made an MVP?
So someone who wasn't an MVP got to go (probably a few people if truth be told, just that Rory blabbed). Unfortunately, this kind of thing does leave a bad taste - not because I have anything against Rory. Problem is, building a community; something which seems to meet Microsofts' current PR aims; requires trust, it has to have leaders of course but those leaders must be seen as having earned that position once you single out an individual for 'special treatment' it can tend to cause friction within the community. Some MVPs have pointed out that they couldn't really see the reason that Rory was asked - most MVPs work hard to earn their award, one of the (as I see it relatively few) perks is getting in on the undisclosed information at the summit, having a back-door to getting there does seem a little unfair on these people. Again, this is not an attack on anyone but Microsoft, if you're really going to build a community, transparency in the selection for your proclaimed 'community leaders' - which is how you want us to view MVPs now, right? - would be a good first step.