Hi. A concerned subscriber asked me to go over the rules about the following... What happens if a subscriber is a paid employee of a company, say a pump company, a company that produces freezer bags or artificial nipples,or a company that produces clothes for the nursing mother, whatever....(just using these as examples...no judgement intended.)..What is the proper LACTNET netiquette concerning identification of business affiliation when writing notes to Lactnet? Here I quote from Lactnet welcome: LACTNET MAY NOT BE USED FOR COMMERCIAL BENEFIT OF ANY COMPANY or individual. INFORMATION found on LACTNET may not be reproduced or quoted without the EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR. All Company representatives (defined as persons who are paid a salary by that company) who are subscribed to LACTNET must identify themselves as such with every post. If you are signing on to Lactnet, or are already on Lactnet, and are a PAID REPRESENTATIVE of any company--ESPECIALLY those of any industry associated with lactation, breast pumps, related equipment, or artificial baby milk production/pharamaceutical company--you may NOT post notes to LACTNET without identifying yourself as an employee of that company. This applies to EVERY note you post on LACTNET For example: "Jane Doe here, and I work for Medela.. or Playtex, ..or Egnell..or NewBabyMilk Company. My opinion of this issue is blah blah blah..." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ****PLEASE NOTE***** Penalty for failure to identify your Business affiliation is permanent DELETION from LACTNET. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What this means is.loosely, that you do NOT have to OPEN every message with "Hi I am Jane Doe, and I work for Blah Blah company..and I think..." What you ***must*** do is to identify the fact that you are an employee somewhere in your note. Most people prefer putting this in as part of their signature.. I have taken the word "first" out of the sentence "You may not post notes to Lactnet without first identifying yourself as an employee of that company." Jane Doe, IBCLC Staff VP for xxx company.. of Staff LC for xxx company This rule is not meant to brand a person with a label, but as general info for all subscribers of Lactnet. If one rents breastpumps for any company, as many of us do, you do not have to identify yourself as a XXX rental station..as you are not a direct employee of that company, and receive no money from them directly. I would say that it is safe to say that 50% of all Subscribers to Lactnet are rental stations of some sort. Hope this clarifies things. Thanks. Kathleen Kathleen B. Bruce, BSN, IBCLC, LLLeader Co-Owner Lactnet, LLLOL, Corgi-L LACTNET WWW site: http://www.mcs.com/~auerbach/lactation.html "We read to know we are not alone." Shadowlands, C.S. Lewis