In another thread here I brought up the subject of user "The Millionaire" and how he had not been seen for quite some time.

This not only spawned some shall we say interesting discussion on the subject of verifying the living status of acquaintances, but more importantly made me actively seek out what information I could find on him.

The only info to really go on was his online name of "The Millionaire" and the "real name" of Erich Bublitz.

Casual searches verified the two names being linked via Fidonet posts, and that he was connected to a BBS known as The Rusty Mailbox, acting as a co-sysop.

So, I posted there, asking about him and, after a little while, I got a reply.

When simply verifying that I hadn't followed a false lead:


Erich was Co-Sysop here but I haven't heard from him in a couple years.

His last login to the BBS was in December of 2021.


In mentioning he was considered sometimes a troll here:


The Millionaire wasn't a troll but he was "sensitive". :)


On him having been a sysop at The Rusty Mailbox:


Yep, he was here but hasn't been seen in quite a while.


Lastly, on his current wearabouts and situation:

Erich was an online friend, I never knew him in person. He asked me to take
over an echo he was maintaining (the MOBILE echo) because he was not feeling
well. I told him I would do that and I have never heard from him since.

Sorry I can't provide any better info about Erich.


So, in the end, we are right where we started. I already feel I'm at a point of diminishing returns if I were to pursue this further, and one has to wonder at what point wondering about if someone is okay crosses a line, so I'm likely to leave it here. Barring continued scouring for obits, there's nothing else I could really think of offhand that could answer the question.

It is what it is, then. Needless to say we all feel the same on the most likely event to have happened, but it's human nature to want to know for certain if someone is okay or not.
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