Patent ID: 7673002

Claim:
A method, comprising: receiving an e-mail message comprising an explicit action request, wherein the explicit action request is one of a plurality of predetermined explicit action requests, and each of the plurality of predetermined explicit action requests indicates an explicit action to be performed by a recipient of the e-mail message in response to the recipient's receiving the e-mail message; and in response to said receiving said e-mail message, incrementing one counter of a plurality of action request counters, wherein the one counter indicates the number of e-mail messages addressed to a particular recipient which: comprise the explicit action request, and for which the explicit action request has not yet been performed by the particular recipient; and wherein each respective one of the plurality of action request counters indicates the number of e-mail messages addressed to a particular recipient which: comprise a respective predetermined explicit action request of said plurality of predetermined explicit action requests, and for which the respective predetermined explicit action request has not yet been performed by the particular recipient.