[LyalinDotCom]

This is why we here at Microsoft (in the developer side of things at least) have an "MVP" programs. This program is something I really love and am proud of as it lets us connect, take early feedback from (under NDA) and invest in our biggest developer platform fans. They do a lot for us, so its well deserved.

https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/

[paulddraper]

On the developer side of things, Google has the Google Developers Experts (GDE) program. It plays a very similar role. https://developers.google.com/experts/

[jklowden]

That's one way of looking at. Another way of looking at is that Microsoft derives material value from MVP contributions, and rewards them with trinkets. Or are MVPs sometimes awarded stock?

Maybe the MVP program partly explains Microsoft's decades-old policy of ignoring standards and promulgating proprietary technology to commoditize the public domain. How to add some tweak to .Net is in the domain of acceptable discourse. When to support C11 or Posix, not so much.

It's been a few years since I had to deal with Microsoft's development environment. If you're taking suggestions, I think it would be nice if F1 once more showed the function's documentation instead of searching the Web. Intelligent development of the development environment never would have subordinated a useful albeit rickety documentation technology to a mindless webby one, no matter the marketing imperatives.