Patent ID: 7254585

Claim:
One or more digital storage devices having computer-readable code embodied therein, including a database with a hierarchical data set having a plurality of hierarchical levels and a plurality of hierarchical depths, and including a unique tag for a datum, for updating, querying or retrieving a record from the database, or managing or displaying a discussion among multiple participants, or combinations thereof, the unique tag comprising: a number having a plurality of digits, each digit representing one of the hierarchical depths of the hierarchical data set; and wherein the position of the least-significant non-zero digit represents the hierarchical depth of the datum; the value of the least-significant non-zero digit represents the hierarchical level of the datum; and the digits that are more significant than the least-significant non-zero digit represent parents of the datum, and wherein the tag comprises a key produced by a method comprising: (a) receiving a command from a user requesting replying to a message; (b) selecting a digit corresponding to the hierarchical depth of the message; and (c) incrementing the value of the selected digit, wherein the method further comprises setting the value of each digit corresponding to a hierarchical depth below the hierarchical depth of the selected digit to a wildcard value, thereby producing the key.