I also really like it when people add their town/city to their signature. It
helps everyone remember just what am amazingly wide variety of perspectives
we share on Lactnet. It also helps to understand the point of view--is it
American, Australian, Canadian, French, Zimbabwean? It makes a difference,
because we're all working in a slightly different cultural milieu, even
within our own countries, let alone continents. It also helps me read the
messages with an idea of the type of sense of humour behind the post, and
bizarre as this may sound, I tend to read the emails with an accent in mind!
I'll probably be astonished to meet the Australians, or Pamela, or Helen,
and find out my mental accent for them is completely wrong. I guess that's
no different than forming a mental picture of someone and having it
completely wrong (which I find is usually for my mental pictures of people.
I never imagine people with glasses, for example, despite the fact that I've
worn glasses for 40 years!).

I also like it when qualifications are put in the signature. It helps me
evaluate information better, but also to know who I could write to if I had
a specific concern related to a field (an NICU nurse, a GI specialist, or a
pharmacist, for example).

I like the first name basis for addressing people on Lactnet but if someone
isn't comfortable with that, I don't think they should feel badly. North
Americans and Australians tend to be much more casual than people from other
countries, and we need to stay sensitive to that.

Leslie Ayre-Jaschke, BEd, IBCLC
Peace River, Alberta, Canada
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