Update: this function will be deprecated on Apr 22, 2019.
Effective from Oct 9, 2017, for free courses only, if you click links to target site in alert mail, an alert portal page, whose screenshot is shown below, will open before jumping to the page under monitoring.
This alert portal page serves multiple roles.
- It acts as an alternative for the read receipt request which has been randomly showing up in alert mails. If you regularly click links in alert mails, you won't get read receipt request any more, and your task won't be unexpectedly suspended due to failure of read receipt.
- It helps to evaluate the notification latency introduced by your mail provider and wireless carrier. If you suspect that your mail provider is not delivering notifications timely, open the portal page immediately after get the mail, the timer showed at portal page indicates the latency of mail delivery, which is usually no more than several seconds in the case of Gmail.
- It is a game! You can compete with other users to be the earlier bird. Every time you open the portal page, your response latency will be evaluated and compared with latest 100 accesses. If dash into top 10% class, you will get a small (random) bonus credit, which can be used for paid courses.
By clicking the link at the bottom of portal page, you can further go to the page under monitoring.
For paid courses, the portal page will be skipped, because we believe paid users deal this service as more serious business, so they may be eager to go to target page rather than playing around.
Just enjoy it!