As one of the first SharePoint MSMVPs (there were two of us for SharePoint Team Services) I watched what was once a meaningful &quot;place at the table&quot; - where MVPs could evangelize for the users in the communities they served - devolve to a place at the bar. As in, a literal bar, because to stay an MVP it sure seemed like you had a lot of parties to go to so you could make the right person laugh at the right time.<p>I ran the largest online community for SharePoint users at the time, and was awarded because of that. I think 7 years total? Maybe 8? I spoke at an internal sales conference (TechReady, where it was suggested I cover up the glowing apple logo on my laptop, and I made anti-FrontPage jokes - that were, incidentally, approved by PMs in the FrontPage team!), and was asked for input on several features. Later, my community outreach was deemed less important, because I wasn&#x27;t contributing to the official newsgroups. The input MVPs gave came too late in the cycle to have any effect. I wasn&#x27;t the type to enjoy pub crawls, so the networking that became a de facto requirement to continued participation was out of my reach. The program grew to include people whose only motivation to join the ranks of MSMVPs was to get early access to software and to curry favor with some PMs or RDs. Several of us started to see it becoming a &quot;good ol&#x27; boys club&quot;, and we knew our days were numbered.<p>Another former MSMVP (who also didn&#x27;t play the reindeer games, as we called it) is now my business partner. We both occasionally miss the camaraderie of the summits, the opportunity to (we naively thought) influence the direction of SharePoint, and the relevance that the little blue and silver badge had. MSMVPs (at least in our product) were once seen as leaders and ombudsmen simultaneously, and now they&#x27;re seen primarily as a way to score free drinks at a conference. We miss the olden days, and wish for the program to mean what it was supposed to mean.<p>I never really wrote all that out before, never really came to terms with the loss I experienced when I found out that I wasn&#x27;t renewed. It didn&#x27;t diminish my evangelism for SharePoint (we still train and consult), but part of me wonders if my pragmatism, my willingness to be brutally honest when SharePoint didn&#x27;t make sense, and my quiet protest at being asked to focus on MS-official communities contributed to that. Not wonder, actually. That&#x27;s not the right word. I&#x27;m pretty sure all those things contributed to it.<p>I guess I wonder if there was anything I could&#x27;ve done to effect change in the MSMVP program, to make it something where our opinions actually mattered. I&#x27;m not bitter about it. I was, but I got over that in a hurry. Now, I&#x27;m just sad. It could&#x27;ve been so much more.<p>Edit: meant to be a reply to Evan&#x27;s comment, sorry about that.