With respect to the LactNetter whose words critical of her employer were
reported to her boss by someone -- we must remember that the LactNet
archives are available for anyone to search, both from people who have just
joined LactNet and by non-members via the web page.  Anyone could find out
about LactNet, know that a co-worker or employee was a member, and look up
in the archives to retrieve every single post that person ever made, and/or
every post that mentioned the institution where that person worked.  This is
NOT really a private forum.  We should also be aware that in many cases
every single e-mail we send or receive is stored on the computer server that
gives us access to e-mail, often for years.  In my case, every e-mail I
write critical of my department head, my department, my students, my
university -- is still sitting there on the computer at the university, for
several *years* after I have sent it.  In one case here at Texas A&M
involving an accusation of fraud on an NSF grant against a professor (in
another department) the university retrieved/seized all of his e-mail
correspondence for the past several years.  We like to think that e-mail is
private, and that it *disappears* when we put it in the "trash can" and then
"empty the trash" but it really doesn't.  It can come back to haunt us, in
many different ways.  Therefore, let the poster beware.  "Caveat Poster" or
something.

Katherine A. Dettwyler, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Nutrition
Texas A&M University