Patent ID: 7653660

Claim:
A method of tagging a message or container in a hierarchical data set having a plurality of hierarchical levels and a plurality of hierarchical depths, the method comprising: presenting with a data storage system a first message of an indented threaded discussion; determining with the data storage system a hierarchical level of the first message within the indented threaded discussion; determining with the data storage system a hierarchical depth of the first message within the indented threaded discussion; assigning with the data storage system a first tag to the first message, comprising: determining the immediate parent of the first message; selecting a parent tag of the immediate parent of the first message, wherein the parent tag is a number having multiple digits each representing one of the hierarchical depths of the hierarchical data set; selecting a digit of the selected parent tag that represents the hierarchical depth of the first message within the indented threaded discussion; and assigning a value to the selected digit, the value representing the hierarchical level of the first message within the indented threaded discussion; and storing an entry in a table of a database with the data storage system, said table entry including the assigned first tag, the selected digit representing the hierarchical depth within the indented threaded discussion, the assigned value representing the hierarchical level within the indented threaded discussion, and the first message.