AV-Sync has officially closed operations, effective 8-31-92.

After some SIX years as a quality service, AV-Sync has gone "out of 
business". 

We leave the BBS world with no debt, and many regrets. Unfortunately, it
was impossible to continue operations in a manner befitting the expectations
of our users.

As some old-timers may know, the system started out as a small, 2-node
service with 250 meg. As the months went on, it grew to a respectable
7+ gig service with more than enough nodes to guarantee few busy signals.

Plans were underway for extensive Usenet echoes, file area expansion, and more.

We attribute our former success to the fact that we never carried games,
X-rated pictures, or illegal software. Every effort was made to guarantee
file integrity. Our users appreciated this. We know, due to an 80% subscriber
renewal figure.

AV-Sync was always a non-profit service. All income was used to the fullest 
extent to keep updating drives, modems, power bills, phone lines, insurance,
and other costs the normal user of a BBS or service never takes into account.

We don't know of many services which guaranteed full UPS backup, along with
a large generator, just to keep things running during power outages. That's
something people never take into consideration. They just know that the system
is usually there when they want access.

We also called users back on a timely basis when they lost passwords, needed
help with configuring their communications programs, etc. on OUR dime. That 
also figured into operating costs of a 24-hour voice line and long distance
charges for file-finding & return calls, postage, etc.

The only thing money can't buy is TIME. It can buy equipment, it can pay 
the bills, and it can provide for the extras.... but when a system grows as
large as we were, and can't pay for help to run it, then there's a major 
problem. It was originally a hobby, then it was love for helping people.
In the last days, it just took too much time. 

The SYSOP has a regular job, a wife, a house, and a LIFE. 

Thankfully, AV-Sync never suffered what many services do:

Unappreciative users.
Tons of BBS ads.
Leeches.
Upload/download ratios. 
Flamers.
.......... and general "twits".

Our policy was steadfast from the beginning: You get what you pay for.
If a user was confident enough in our service to pay for it, this 
automatically told us that they were a serious individual, and were welcome
to all we could provide. Knowing a serious modem user invoked a sense of
pride, and a sense of helping others. We certainly did that, and a lot more
during our existence.

We also said from the start that when the time became unavailable to provide
a good service to the commmunity, we would cease operations. That time
has come.

The face of the modem world is changing. That bargain basement modem someone
just bought is in the bargain realm for a reason. Now the high-speed modems
are changing, and everyone who doesn't eventuallly upgrade to the new
CCITT standard will be out of luck when those GREEN telco boxes on your
block are colored BROWN. You'll know it's fiber then. (According to sources
inside Southern Bell.) This is recent information.

Recent scares of modem taxes are, for the most part, a bunch of BS; however,
no one can say that it will not be a part of a much larger bill being passed
through legislation as we sit and wait. It will take someone looking through
miles of documents to tear it all apart.

Government agencies are prone to "no comment" when someone gets close.
In our searches and diggings, we recieved a lot of those non-comittal
statements. 

Though we had no debt, and weathered the "recession" well, the future is
too uncertain to risk continuing. One person called us "chicken", and then
decided to close their own system down a week later. Interesting.

We would like to recommend and acknowledge all of the boards which we
have enjoyed a good relationship with, and who have received MANY files
from AV-Sync:

Executive Network (Andy Keeves) ... You know by all the files with dates
                                    in parens. (MM-DD-YY).
Channel One (Brian & Tess)
Sound Advice (Roy Timberman)    ... Our top downloader.
Flagship Express (Harvey Pierce)
Rose Media (Vic Kass)
Chicago Midi (Dave Nosek)
Canada Remote Systems (Jud Newell)
Sound Of Music (Paul Waldinger)

Not a bad bevy of boards to say the least, and we recommend them highly.

All equipment and assets are for sale, including the file base.
Since the file base is mostly shareware, we are only charging for time
and maintenance of the tapes.

For a list, please send a self-addressed #10 envelope and return postage
to: AV-Sync
    P.O. Box 49567
    Atlanta, Ga. 30359

First come, first served.

.............. and we will miss it.