
SYNCHRONET BBS SPOTLIGHT


    1. BBS NAME:  The Voice

    2. NUMBER OF NODES:  5 Available (6th does Maintenance/Mail)

    3. PHONE NUMBER:  (914)664-1844 (All Nodes Roll-Over)

        a. ALTERNATE PHONE NUMBER:  (914)664-1923

    4. LOCATION:  Mount Vernon, New York

    5. SYSOP

        a. HANDLE: Debbi, Snowdog, Toadeater, and Bombay

    6. NETWORK AFFILIATIONS:

        a. Dove-Net/MAG-Net     Address:  n/a

        b. RIME/Relaynet        Address:  5437

        c. ThrobNet             Address:  5437

        d. FidoNet              Address:  1/2625:139

    7. GENERAL THEME:

        Games, Nets, Files, Helpful Friendly Sysops, Technical

        Support.

    8. SPECIAL FEATURES:

        Four (4) CD-ROMS [Adding two (2) More Shortly].

    9. FUTURE PLANS:

        Internet Access, Money Prize Contests.

   10. MISC. INFO/SYSOP COMMENTS:

        All Nodes are PPI14400FX Modesm, 4-Gigs of Hard Drive Space.

        Running Netware with two (2) Servers (1 for Hard Drives,
        1 for CD-ROM Drives) and Six (6) Seperate/Dedicated Nodes.

        Over 100 Doors on-line. ALL users are Voice Verified.



REVIEWER'S COMMENTS


FIRST IMPRESSION:
    I found The Voice BBS to be a very well thought out, easily navigable
    system that both the novice and veteran BBS'er would enjoy. The first
    thing that really struck me about it was it's professional appearance.
    You could tell that a great many hours had been spent giving it a
    unique and refreshing appearance. I was particularly impressed with the
    ANSI artwork/menus which help give the system a very well-ordered feel
    to it.

COMMAND SHELLS:
    The Voice BBS offered the following command shells for new users:

      1: THE VOICE MENUS
      2: Synchronet (Classic)
      3: Synchronet (Novice)
      4: PCBoard Clone
      5: Wildcat Clone
      6: MajorBBS Clone
      7: Renegade Clone
      8: WWIV Clone
      9: ViSiON/2 Clone
      10: ViSiON/2 Clone (Novice)
      11: T.A.G. Clone
      12: Oblivion/2 Clone
      13: Search Light Clone
      14: Wildcat! v4. Clone

    An excellent collection of command shells that illustrates one of the
    unique features of Synchronet BBS Systems. I would particularly
    recommend the Wildcat! v4 and ViSiON/2 clones (of course, being the
    author of those shells, I'm a little prejudiced).

    The Voice also offers it's own unique command shell and for the purpose
    of this review, that is the one I chose. I personally found that shell
    to be very intuitive and easy to use. Commands were more or less based
    on the common sense approach (i.e. "F" for files, "Q" for QWK, etc.).
    The ANSI menus for that shell were well made and attractive and not the
    least bit tiring on the eyes (nothings worse than having to search a
    cluttered menu at 3 a.m. to find out how to log off).

GENERAL COMMENTS:
    Wandering around I noticed that the SysOps have taken full use of the
    optional menus that can be displayed to callers. In the door area, each
    general type of door game had it's own area and an ANSI menu to help
    set the "mood". As was mentioned earlier, The Voice has over a 100 door
    games, with many that I'd never even seen before but would have liked
    to try. Being unvalidated, however, I wasn't able to play (darn!). If
    you want to see a text book example of how to set up a professional
    BBS, I'd suggest you give Debbi, Snowdog, Toadeater, and Bombay a call.
    You won't be sorry and you might even pick up (read: steal) a few good
    ideas.

*(Want to be spotlighted in a future issue of SYNCHRONETICS E-ZINE? Complete
  the document, Q&A.DOC, and return it to us and you may find me or my 
  staff knocking on your virtual door)

