Permission - Establishing Permissions

How does PortalsXpress establish a contact permission?
Let's keep it very basic and discuss a brief walk-through. We will refer to PortalsXpress Messenger instant messaging only and assume the following scenario:

Both you and Stewart have PortalsXpress Messenger installed on your respective computers. At this time, you have not placed Stewart on your approved Contacts list. Stewart, knowing that your PortalsXpress Messenger member ID is "alice", sends you a message through Share Vantage Messenger using your address of alice@portalsxpress.com. PortalsXpress goes to work and recognizes that you have not granted permissions to Stewart. The first thing that happens is that PortalsXpress contacts Stewart informing him that he has not been granted permission to contact you and asks Stewart to complete a very short Requesting Contact Permission form. The form asks Stewart to describe his association or relation to you and to briefly describe why he wishes to contact you.

Since PortalsXpress has conveniently taken Stewart to this form on the www.portalsxpress.com website, Stewart quickly completes the form and informs PortalsXpress that he is your co-worker and that he wishes to contact you for work-related issues.

PortalsXpress then notifies you of Stewart's completed request for permission. You can address Stewart's request at anytime, as it will be available for you until you either grant him contact permission, deny him contact permission, or delete his contact request. As you see, the control remains with you.

At this point in reading this, you may have said "Oh, I see", realizing that if Stewart was actually someone or some agency trying to send unsolicited advertising batch e-mails, it is hard to imagine that he or they would bother to complete the Requesting Contact Permission form. Therefore, you immediately see that you would never even be bothered by their permissions request nor would their e-mail reach your inbox. PortalsXpress's job is to stop that unsolicited message or e-mail at the server site; long before it reaches your computer.

To continue, let's assume that you decide to address Stewart's request immediately. To read his Contact Permission request you simply double click on the contact request icon (red flag) in PortalsXpress Messenger. PortalsXpress immediately takes you to the appropriate PortalsXpress website screen and with a single click saves your selection to grant him permission. Stewart is now automatically placed on your approved Contacts list and your correspondence permissions are under way.

Let's assume that for some reason Stewart starts sending you unwanted offensive e-mail. Remember, you control your contacts. You may move Stewart to your No Contacts list to let PortalsXpress filter all messages originating from Stewart.