> How should the date be formatted? I'm guessing the author is the
> author's email address?

The link Francoise gave you is basically the "search the archives" form with the input boxes filled out and instructions to execute the search and display the first result, instead of displaying the form and waiting for the user to press "Submit." The syntax for the date and time is:

        [datespec] [timespec] (at least one of the two must be present)

      Date specification:

        TODAY[-n] | YESTERDAY
        [[yy]yy/]mm/dd | [[yy]yy-]mm-dd | [yy]yymmdd
        [dd] [mmm] [yy[yy]]

      Time specification:

        hh:mm[:ss] | hh.mm[.ss]

In a URL, you would need to separate date and time with %20. Here is a working example:

[log in to unmask]&a=20070911%2010.07.34&b=20070911%2010.07.35&m=1*" target="_blank">http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa.exe?S2=LSTOWN-L&[log in to unmask]&a=20070911%2010.07.34&b=20070911%2010.07.35&m=1*

One issue I just noticed is that the search form requires a difference of at least one second between start and end times. Probably not a problem in practice. We are working on a better solution to the persistent link problem (easier and shorter URL), but the above is what you can do with 15.0 out of the box.

  Eric