This is the issue as I see it:

(1) Lactnet has been a Listserver news group. Until recently
the indexes were not available for cross-indexing by the
powerful search engines/web crawlers. The indexes have
been available to anyone -- but only in un-indexed form
(which is why it makes it so much easier for us to utilize the
indexes when posted to the WWW.) A person who wanted to
look at the indexes had to order the indexes *by date * --
content unknown -- and spend time browsing them
individually.

(2) By posting the Lactnet indexes to the WEB it is likely
that the indexes will be cross-referenced on the various
search services by subject, name of poster,  text words. That
is, it is likely that ANYONE will soon be able to look up, for
instance, "WIC" and get every post ever made on Lactnet
about WIC.

Or, a search could be done on your name.

This was not the case when the indexes were stored on
Listserv. Correct me if I am wrong.

Yes--the indexes have always been "public". But the
information has been cumbersome to access and the lack of
cross-reference provided a modicum of "protection" against
individual posters having their names and comments
indexed.

People who post to WWW newsgroups know this, which is
why the majority use fake names. I would have done the
same if I knew that Lactnet would end up as WWW product.

What if your boss decides to surf the internet and uses a
search service to see if there is anything about his/her
hospital on the web. And what if you made a comment
mentioning the hospital by name or area you aren't real
anxious to have him/her read? How likely would it be that
your boss would have ordered individual indexes from
Lactnet?

What are your feelings about this, fellow Lactnetters?

Signed,
Ann Elsie
(a pseudonym)