Burbuja.info: Forum Users Vanish Amid Death Rumors and Abandonment

When a nickname stops posting, no one knows if it is death or indifference

There is a scene that repeats periodically on internet forums: a username that had been publishing daily for years disappears. No one notices in the first month. In the second, someone asks. In the third, the count of possible deceased begins. In the Guardería subforum of Burbuja.info, a message titled "forumers who have really died" has turned into a list of names, causes, and dates mixing family confirmations, suspicions, and hoaxes.

The initial message asked about Cesard, "confirmed," and podemita, "just a rumor." From there, dozens of replies added names: Luisito, Tiburcio de Medinasidonia, Napoleón/Cronicón, MacGuyver, Karlos Smith, Don Pascual, Uritorco, jerjes, LADRIC, alvinred, El Promotor, Blaster, Polirisitas, Jevitronka. Some with known causes, others labeled as "probably."

Cancer, ELbichito, and suicides: recurring causes

Cancer appears as the most cited cause. Tiburcio de Medinasidonia narrated his cancer treatment on the forum three or four years ago, according to messages. Karlos Smith, who had an air conditioning company in Valencia, also announced his illness and died shortly after; someone found his obituary on Google. Cepeda33, a regular of black humor, suffered the same fate.

ELbichito takes another group. Mineroblanco, who wrote about stock market investment and prostitutes, died of cobi19 according to a message. Don Pascual also did, although the cause is debated there: "some say due to ELbichito, others due to the vaccine," without either version being backed up in the thread.

Suicide is the third category. Napoleón/Cronicón committed suicide in 2019. MacGuyver in 2015, with "doubts" about the official explanation. These are the most delicate cases and those where messages provide the least detail.

The problem of confirming a death online

Most names lack verifiable confirmation. Cesard, whom the initial message considered "confirmed," generates division: one participant claims the mother has a "direct line" to the forum administrator, and another responds that "his death is confirmed" but provides no source. It is the usual pattern: someone knows through a relative, someone read it elsewhere, no one links an obituary.

Jevitronka's case illustrates another possibility. "Still unconfirmed," says one message, and another adds that "he simply realized that this forum has unstable harassers and psychopaths who miccionan business and lost his desire to joke around." That is: disappearing does not equal dying. Sometimes it is fleeing.

Blaster, Polirisitas, revongo, chusto: all fall into the "half a year without posting" category. No one has found an obituary. No one has family contact. They are silent losses that the forum interprets as death by default, because the alternative—that someone just got tired—is less dramatic and less discussed.

The forum as an improvised civil registry

Burbuja.info was born as an economic forum during the real estate bubble. Its participants have spent twenty years discussing housing, Euribor, and monetary policy. With that history, mortality starts becoming statistical: men aged 40 to 65, many with chronic illnesses, some with mental health problems. The forum becomes a kind of civil registry where obituaries arrive via private message or from a relative who remembers the password.

Some propose an "Arlington Memorial" with bricks honoring the fallen. Others ask Calopez, the administrator, to enable a decent burial. Irony runs through the thread: "I will bury you among benzos and whisky one by one," writes a participant. Another states: "we are all dead, we just don't know it yet."

What the count cannot resolve

The final list mixes documented deaths with unexplained disappearances. Luisito, who wrote very long messages, died "about two years ago" according to a message, with unknown cause. El Promotor, whom some consider deceased, may have "simply left the forum." The boundary between death and abandonment cannot be drawn without access to personal data that the forum does not have.

The unsettling fact remains: in twenty years of history, confirmed names do not reach fifteen. And most confirmations come by chance, months later, when someone remembers a password or finds an obituary. The forum does not know how many of its members have died. It only knows how many have stopped writing.