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                         E X P I R E ۲


                                    SLExpire
               The access level expiration utility for Searchlight
                                  version 1.00

                                 by Chris Ruvolo
                     Copyright (c) 1994 Unconscious Software



 Intro 

This freeware program is designed to manage your expiring user accounts in
Searchlight BBS quickly and efficiently.  It will allow you to return people
to any access level when an account expires, delete the account, or make no
change whatsoever.  It has the option to send notification messages based upon
several criteria.  SLExpire will maintain a log file for easy review or bug
checks.  It will also optionally make a report to any subboard and user.


 Why should you use SLExpire? 

The people who will get the most use out of SLExpire are the sysops of pay
BBSs.  They will finally have a program that will allow them to set expiration
dates of pay users and let them expire so that the pay users won't have to be
placed with new users once they expire.  SLExpire will also send notification
messages to people based upon how many days they have left until expiration
and what user group they are in.  So you can send a message to a pay user
telling him his account expires in 30 days, and how to correct the problem.

The average hobbyist sysop can also benefit from SLExpire.  I personally had
many users log into my board once or twice, and never call back.  After two
weeks, their accounts expired, and the only way to get them out of the user
file was to manually go through it and delete them.  Since they never called
back after they expired, SL would not delete their accounts.  So, instead of
having your user file cluttered up by lots of unwanted and unneeded users, let
SLExpire delete them.

These are just some suggested uses, I'm sure all of the creative sysops out
there can find plenty of others.


 Feature List 

Here's a quick list of features.

   Ability to specify specific, separate actions for users on different
     access levels.
   When a user on an access level expires, he may be deleted, moved to
     another access level, or no action may be taken at all, depending on how
     you configured ExpSetup.
   Ability to treat users matching no group as a separate group.
   Ability to send users notification messages before their account expires.
     Notifications can be specified by access group.  Messages are read in via
     text files.
   Ability to send users notification of their access level change when it
     changes.
   Optional report sent in your setup SL colors to any user on any subboard,
     including MAIL.
   Ability to force a report to be sent, even if there are no changes.
   Ability to list users matching access groups, and display that list to the
     screen or a text file.
   Complete logging.
   Extremely easy to use setup interface.
   Since SLExpire will never prompt for user input unless ExpSetup is run, it
     will be easily run from a batch file.
   Desqview and OS/2 aware, SLExpire and ExpSetup will pass time slices.
   SLExpire uses your customized SL color setup.
   SLExpire and ExpSetup default to direct screen writes for maximum speed
     and efficiency.
   SLExpire and ExpSetup have the option of BIOS screen writes, so you can
     monitor them within a SLBBS shell.
   Code compiled for 80286 optimization, to produce maximum speed and 
     efficiency.


 Don't take MY word for it 

Here's what some fellow SL sysops think about SLExpire:

 "I love it!  The program looks great.  Especially the nifty ANSI screens!
 Thanks for a great program!"  -- Christopher Stewart

 "I just got some time today and set it up in about 5 minutes. *VERY* nice
 configuration program. I love that. I think it is a much needed utility and
 should have been built into SL in the first place. Nice job. Releasing this 
 as freeware is very generous. The only other competing product, Expir'em by
 Mark Silcox, is shareware priced at $10. Keep programming such excellent
 utilities!<G>"  -- Richard Lis


 System Requirements 

There's not much, but I thought I'd present it anyway.

   Enough free space to fit SLExpire on disk.
   63k free conventional RAM.
   DOS 3.3 or greater.
   SLBBS 2.0 or greater.
   FILES=10 statement in your config.sys (or greater).
   80286 processor or greater.


 Obtaining SLExpire 

I'm going to do my best to make SLExpire available to as many people as
possible.  Currently you can FREQ it from either of my addresses (see below)
as SLEXPIRE, send me internet mail asking for it, call my BBS and download
it on the first call, or find a SL_FDN site near you.  SLExpire will be
hatched into the SL_FDN upon all releases.


 Contacting the Author 

Comments, suggestions, bug reports and correspondence are welcome.  Please
send me something, I'd like to hear from you.

Chris Ruvolo can be reached at the following:

The Unconscious BBS - (201) 573-0556 - 14.4k v.32bis
  FidoNet      : 1:2604/208
  SL_Net       : 250:104/1229
  Internet     : ruvoloc@iia.org

  Snail Mail   : 611 Woodland Court
                 River Vale, NJ  07675
