Patent ID: 7882360

Claim:
In a computerized environment that includes an electronic messaging service, a group member, and one or more group lists associated with the group member, a method of relaying a group message between a subscriber and one or more group members in the one or more group lists without the subscriber having to separately join the one or more group lists, the method comprising the acts of: identifying a group list and one or more group members of the group list; sending a trust indicator by a subscriber who is not a member of the group list to one of the one or more group members, the trust indicator comprising an electronic message sent to the one group member, the trust indicator indicating a request to send or receive electronic communication with a group list associated with the one or more group members without the subscriber becoming a member of the group list; sending a trust acceptance indicator by the one group member to the subscriber who is not a member of the group list, the trust acceptance indicator indicating that the one group member has accepted the trust indicator; generating a relay mechanism based on a trust relationship created between the subscriber and the one group member by acceptance of the trust indicator even though the subscriber is not a member of the group list such that the subscriber can receive group messages sent to the identified group list, the relay mechanism comprising an address forwarding file in the group list that includes an electronic address associated with the subscriber; relaying to the subscriber a group message sent by any of the one or more group members to the group list without the subscriber being a member of the group list; and relaying to the group list a group message sent by the subscriber without the subscriber being a member of the group list, such that the one group member that sent the trust acceptance indicator receives the group message from the subscriber without requiring a response to a challenge from the subscriber, but one or more other group members receive the group message from the subscriber subject to a receive setting that requires a response to a challenge from the subscriber.