Hold up, really? has it been confirmed by op? that'd be indeed sad.
My first thought was op was revamping the thread or something until I read your post.
There's some ongoing saga, I haven't completely got into the bottom of it but for some reasons he decided to delete most of the topics he had created in the past. Not sure why, but it is what it is.
Check here if you have some time --->
Ratimov is deleting self-moderated topics. He now goes onto my Ignore list.