I'm glad Pat brought this up! I, too, often wish that I could see the posts
sent perhaps only privately in response to a question posed on LACTNET. At
the same time, I occasionally have to go nomail for various reasons. When
I'm nomail, private emailing ensures that I will actually get to see the
replies to any post I submit. And sometimes private emailing helps me more
quickly catalog the responses I get. However, when I ask for private
replies, I sometimes forget to specifically say "Please post to LACTNET,
too" (even though I don't intend to divert a breastfeeding discussion off
of LACTNET). Sometimes I then get multiple requests from folks asking me to
forward any private replies to them. As much as I would like to do this, it
is often unmanageable as it would take too much time for me to get
permission from each private poster and then forward the formerly private
post on. So whether or not it's suggested, private emailing can always be
done *in conjunction with* posting to LACTNET so that other folks can
participate in the discussion, too. For that matter, I almost always post
to LACTNET *and* to the person to whose post I am replying--just to make
sure the person has a chance to see my reply in a timely manner. I'm sure
I'm not the only one to get behind on reading LACTNET digests! Of course,
people can always choose to share something only privately if they prefer
or if they feel their response isn't suitable for general dissemination to
the list.

Glad for both options,

Cynthia

Cynthia Good Mojab
Ammawell
Email: [log in to unmask]
Web site: http://home.attbi.com/~ammawell

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