Might appear to you as banter, but to him it's more straight up arguing, or even baiting.
He'll try to get you rolling, then suddenly disappears. Next day you log on to a timer because of that last comment you left him. That's why he goes gone, you'll leave it in case he hasn't seen it, but for him it's juicy enough to report, and he doesn't want to chance you deleting it.
There's a cpl of others that use this tactic, I noticed this past summer.