Mike Hall - MVP wrote:

"VanguardLH" wrote in message
...
Bob Lucas wrote:

Are there any special rules governing the use of the designation MS-MVP?

I ask the question because, according to the page at
https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/communities/mvp.aspx, the Microsoft
MVP Awardee directory contains a listing of all MVPs that want to share
information publicly.

However, when I conducted advanced searches against the names of
contributors to several newsgroups (who claim to be MVPs), the search
engine produced the following response "No results were found for your
search criteria".

Some MVPs claim they don't want their private information published in a
public place. That doesn't preclude that they are *listed* as an MVP.
If an MVP doesn't have themself published in the MVP lists (and which
does NOT require any public disclosure of their personal info) then I
don't consider them an MVP. If you want to check on the credentials of
a cert that an employee claims to have, you check with the issuer to
find out if that cert was actually ever awarded to that person. If
someone claims they are an expert in some profession, they must provide
proof of such. Lack of proof means lack of expertise. I'm not allowed
to claim that I'm a doctor, cop, or any other professional without
having traceable credentials. To me, if they can't prove that they were
elected by other MVPs to become themself an MVP then I'm not going to
believe them just because they say so.

If an MVP wants to hide, consider why they want to hide. They don't
need to give out their street address, phone number, or any private
information. Obviously if they want to have an identity as an MVP then
*something* of them must be made public. If an MVP wants to hide from
the public but only let other MVPs know about their MVP status then let
them hide inside an MVP-only forum or MVP-only mailing list. If they
don't want to be public then don't claim to be an MVP in public.

If someone says they are an MVP but if the public can't verify that
status and if the one claiming to be an MVP can prove their status then
they aren't an MVP. Anyone can claim anything they want in the Usenet
anarchy. Hiding MVPs dilute the status and potence of the MVP title.

You have it all worked out, eh.

Some may not be public because their employers might think that they would
possibly do free work in works time.

They obviously don't need to add "MVP" to their moniker when they are
supposedly wasting company time doing non-company work.

Some employers may consider the MVP award status to be in competition with
what the company does/supplies.

Another reason to NOT include "MVP" in the moniker.

Some MVPs may not be in a position politically.

I'm not sure you meant. A political "position" might have a meaning
that I'm not aware off, like touching your toes while backside exposed.