From: patrick@chinet.chi.il.us (Patrick A. Townson)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.homosexuality,alt.sex,soc.motss
Subject: New Phone Male System For Chicago Area Gay Guys
Date: 6 Apr 92 06:22:42 GMT
Organization: Chinet - Public access UNIX


A new voicemail service called Phone Male is now operating in the Chicago
area for gays. The service has several components:

1) One on one private conversations with other callers, using rematch ...
that is, if the person automatically connected to your line is not the
sort of person you wish to meet, (either party) hitting the * button on
the phone will break the link and match both parties with another caller.

2) A group area where several people can converse at one time.

3) Private voicemail boxes, with your own password where messages can be
left in the event you do not wish to give out your own phone number. You
leave a greeting message of your choice in the box.

4) A bulletin board message area where you can post messages for all users
and listen to the messages others have left. These messages are not in any
way censored. Your message can refer people to either your voicemail box
on the system, or to some other telephone number -- your choice.

5) THE CHICAGO PHONE MALE SYSTEM IS PART OF THE COMMUNITY. Two special
sections on the system are given over to gay community news and a calendar
of events; in addition, an area is available for gay leaders to leave
messages of interest to all users.

6) The cost of service is priced to meet the expenses of the operator. The
rates are:

    $15 for one hour  ... $25 for two hours ... --> $70 for eight hours.

You may use the time as desired; all at once, or over days, weeks or
months. If you use a minute at a time, you are charged for only a minute.
There is a one time $5 enrollment fee to set up your account, and
NO OTHER CHARGES.  As part of the $5 enrollment fee, you are given an
extra 20 minutes of system time.

An examination of these rates show that the rate per minute ranges from at
most, 25 cents per minute to as little as about 15 cents per minute. 

How come?  Simply because PHONE MALE does *not* use 900/976 numbers. It
operates on regular, local phone lines. The system was designed to avoid
all the costly -- frankly ripoff -- charges on 900/976 type calls. The
system is being operated with the Chicago gay community in mind; the
assumption is people want to meet *real*, *local* people in a safe and
discrete way without having to pay big money to do so.

Payment is made three ways:

    VISA/MC  is acceptable.

    Prepayment by check is acceptable.

    A direct billing account can be established for you if your 
    credit history provides some basis to do so.

In any case, the business office deals with you through the mail ...
NOT by charge your telephone account or other things like 900/976 
operations.

To use the system in a free, five minute demo, phone 312-465-7200. Not all
features are available on the demo line. For more information, you can
also call 1-708-518-6962.  When/if you wish to sign up and become a full
user on the CHICAGO PHONE MALE service, call 1-800-444-3825 and speak with
a representative in the business office, 24 hours per day.

If you ask the business office, you can have a complimentary 20 minute
account which allows full access to all features. The business office is
operated by *live people* to help prevent fraudulent use of credit cards
and to screen out underage pranksters from being on the system. 

And seriously, there are no catches: the price ranges from 15 cents to 25
cents per minute, depending on how much time you wish to purchase. You pay
for the phone call to the north side of Chicago. If you'd rather pay
prices like $3.95 per minute on a 900 service to hear a recorded fantasy,
that's your business, but CHICAGO PHONE MALE has no actors and no
recordings; just real gay people talking with other gay people in a
discrete, safe way at a price that's intended to put the rip-off artists
out of business.

For free five minute anonymous demo:  312-465-7200 
For free anonymous information: 708-518-6962
For complimentary full service 20 minute code: 1-800-444-3825. 

Thanks for your time in reading this. 


Patrick Townson
-- 
Patrick Townson 
  patrick@chinet.chi.il.us / ptownson@eecs.nwu.edu / US Mail: 60690-1570 
  FIDO: 115/743 / AT&T Mail: 529-6378 (!ptownson) /  MCI Mail: 222-4956
Newsgroups: alt.politics.homosexuality,alt.sex