An affiliation signifies that a poster belongs to one or more groups. These groups indicate a certain level of technical adeptness and do not specifically mean that a poster has specific forum privileges. For example, a Microsoft employee on a product team does not necessarily have moderator privileges in a forum. Table 3 outlines the available affiliations in a Microsoft forum.
Affiliation
Definition
MSFT
Microsoft employee that is specifically not in a support role. When you see someone with the MSFT affiliation posting, he/she is likely the forum owner or a member of the product team.
Microsoft Support
Microsoft support personnel.
MVP
Most Valuable Professional (MVP) awarded annually by Microsoft. MVPs are one of the key influencers that participate in any online community.
Microsoft Partner
Microsoft Partner. Note that there is no distinction as to the level of Microsoft Partner for a user, such as “Registered” or “Gold” levels.
Table 3: Forum Affiliations
Maheshkumar S Tiwari edited Revision 1. Comment: Added tags