Updated: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 1:07 PM

A simple 'inbox' for receiving messages sent to you by those who click the First Contact or Recruitment icon on your profile. (The Recruitment icon will only appear if you have specified that you are hiring.)

Think of the Message Centre as similar to a basic email inbox - without all the bells and whistles. First Contact is the first point of call for those trying to reach you who may not have access to your regular contact details. This may be because you have chosen not to display an email address or other details on your profile or you have not assigned the message sender 'Permission' to view some or all of your contact details. See the Address Book section for details on the Permissions system.

How it works

1. Visitor clicks the First Contact icon on your profile
2. The First Contact form appears
3. Visitor types in their name, email address and a short message. They submit the form.
4. Visitor then receives an email requesting confirmation that their message is not spam or offensive.
5. If visitor responds by clicking our confirmation link then their message is delivered to you via the Messages module. If you specify it in Preferences, messages may also be delivered to one or more of your selected email addresses.
6. You can then choose to reply to the visitor or report their message as spam. If the latter, we will block their email address.

First Contact is not perfect. It would not be difficult for those with too much time on their hands to use a series of different email addresses to get around our filtering system. But it will help.

Relies upon

• First Contact ( icon on your profile.)
• Recruitment icon on your profile.
• O'WONDER newsletters may be delivered here too if you request them from Preferences.