Before the web: no BBS is documented for the town

L81-1 · Before the web

Tested negative: no bulletin board system seated in New Carlisle or Olive Township was found in any of the surviving national BBS lists searched for this section. The instruments were: (1) the Nixpub long listing of public-access UNIX sites, September 13, 1991, and its January 4, 1994 successor; (2) THE BBS List, November 1993, maintained by Sonya Chang, including its 219-area-code deletions and additions; (3) USBBS lists 114 (November 1993) and 118 (March 1994), edited by Bob Breedlove; (4) the registered WILDCAT! BBS list current to December 28, 1991, and the January 8, 1991 WILDCAT! list; and (5) the March 1991 PDSL list of more than 2,000 confirmed systems. In each list the 219 section was read for a New Carlisle place-name, a 574/219 New Carlisle exchange, or a sysop address in the town. None appears.

What the lists do show, at BOUNDARY size, is how close the scene came without landing in town. The Nixpub list carries nstar at Notre Dame, Indiana — 219-289-0282, a multi-line UNIX/BBS system — seated at Notre Dame, not in Olive Township. The March 1991 PDSL list carries Radio Daze AM & FM at Mishawaka (219-256-2255) and, in the WILDCAT! material, Radio Daze again at 219-256-2255. A 1996 FidoNet-style list carries Michiana Computer Network at South Bend (219-282-1054). A memoir source remembers MOM — the Michiana Online Messenger — as located in South Bend, Indiana. Every one of those seats is South Bend, Mishawaka or Notre Dame ground. None is New Carlisle ground, and none is claimed here as a town fact.

The limit of the test is stated plainly: these lists are survivals, not a census. A short-lived home board that never registered, never joined FidoNet and never submitted to a list would leave no trace in any of them. The negative therefore reads exactly as far as the instruments reach — no listed, registered or remembered BBS for this town — and no further.

Sources:

1. Nixpub long listings (textfiles.com / NSRC, Sept. 13, 1991 and Jan. 4, 1994) — nstar at Notre Dame; no New Carlisle entry.
2. THE BBS List, Nov. 1993 (textfiles.com mirror) — 219-area-code section read in full; no New Carlisle entry.
3. USBBS114.LST (Nov. 1993) and USBBS118.LST (Mar. 1994), bbslist.textfiles.com — no New Carlisle entry.
4. WILDCAT! registered lists, Jan. 8, 1991 and Dec. 28, 1991 — 219 entries are Fort Wayne, Huntington, Albion and similar seats; no New Carlisle entry.
5. PDSL confirmed list, Mar. 1991 — Radio Daze at Mishawaka; no New Carlisle entry.
6. Rick Root memoir page — MOM, the Michiana Online Messenger, remembered as located in South Bend; boundary only.