Of course, that login would not have been the actual real life Hal..  There does not seem to be any dispute that Hal died in August 2014, which would have been within the same month of any last known posts from him through the account linked to OP of this thread and about a year and a half or so after posting OP..   

I recall hearing that there had been some activity from Hal's account or something like that, and the forum had locked/or blocked Hal's account sometime after there had been activity on the account.. and maybe that was the March 2017 - or so activity that shows up on the account?  I cannot recall the details at this time, as I type - or maybe I am getting him mixed up with some other member.. Sometimes forum accounts do get hacked into, too.