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       .---- An Automatic Message Generator for RemoteAccess BBS! ----.


    What AutoMsg Does, And Why It Exists
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    AutoMsg  does  exactly  the same as a lot of other utilities  -  namely,
    sending a message to your new users and uploaders.  However,  there  are
    several things that the other utilities don't do.

    The other utilities are designed to work with a variety of BBS systems -
    but AutoMsg is the *FIRST* that will run properly with RemoteAccess BBS.
    Also,   the   other   utilities will force you  to  use  something  like
    "Thanks  for uploading  the  following file (or files)".  No longer will
    you  have  to have a ridiculously long line,   for AutoMsg will let  you
    use "Thanks for uploading the following file"   for single file uploads,
    or  "Thanks   for uploading the following files"  if there is more  than
    one. Neat, huh? AM also lets you know when  your users page  you and you
    don't answer.

    You can also be made "Information Messages"  telling you what's happened
    on the system,  and you can post messages based on the number of times a
    user  has called your system,  and you can post messages to the  message
    base from text files. Neat eh?

    AutoMsg   will  first read your RA.LOG file starting from the last  date
    it  checked for (note that if you have previously used an old version of
    AutoMsg,  you must delete AUTOMSG.CTL,  the file that the date is stored
    in),   and will then send the messages to users.

    The  messages are taken from the files "THANKYOU.AUM"  for the uploaders
    message,  and "WELCOME.AUM" for the new users message. Both files should
    be  in  plain  ASCII,   and should contain not much more than  about  65
    characters per line. You can use the following "keywords" to personalise
    your messages.

    %FNAME    is replaced with the user's first name,
    %LNAME    is replaced with the user's last name,
    %FILE     is replaced with the list of uploaded files,
    %S        is replaced with a  "s" if more than one file is uploaded,  or
              left blank if there is just one file.

    Naturally, the file-related commands (%FILE and %S) can't be used in the
    messages to new users.

    These  can be used in any of the messages including the messages  posted
    from  text files,  so if a text file you post includes "%FNAME"  then it
    will be replaced with the recipient's first name.

    The  .AUM files you supply must start with the subject line as the first
    line in the file, and the following part of the file is the message text
    to use. Keywords are accepted in the subject line as well.


    How do you run AutoMsg?
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    By  typing  in  one simple command (or putting  it in a batch  file)   -
    AUTOMSG.   Not  too  difficult eh?  If you want to  enable  the  special
    messages after certain numbers of calls,  you must also run AMUTIL after
    each call. You can also post text files as messages - same format as AUM
    files is required. Type AUTOMSG followed by the filename then the user's
    name in quote marks. (ie AUTOMSG POST_ME.TXT "stuart henderson").


    An alternative way of listing user names is by using a "response file" -
    specify @FILENAME.EXT instead of the user name (ie:

    AUTOMSG POST_ME.TXT @SEC15.LST

    where "SEC15.LST" is a straight text file containing names of the users,
    who you want to send text to. If  your favourite user utility can create
    a list of all users  with a certain security  level, you can send a note
    to all of them - If you want a utility made to do this, netmail James!).

    However,  you will also need to create AUTOMSG.CFG which will be  looked
    for  in the current directory and if it can't be found there,   the  one
    pointed to by the SEMAJ environment variable will be checked.

    For details of what to put in this file, please see the sample enclosed,
    which is heavily commented.

    AutoMsg will create a file, called AUTOMSG.CTL, so it knows where in the
    log file to start searching from.  Delete this file if you want to  scan
    from the start of the log-file. Do NOT delete this file if you don't.