There was a Bedard thread already in existence (this one). Rob just started adding his summary of the Felger&Mazz discussion onto that thread. Deus (who has Rob on ignore) started a separate thread. Miguel then merged the 2 threads. Deus then noticed that his thread has disappeared and started a new one, until informed of what had happened, at which point he signed off.
I don't see the need for multiple threads, but I don't see the harm, either, and I'm not sure that most of us are better off by not having Deus' comments available (which those who didn't want to read could ignore).