Wow, this is amazing, and I just posted a note elsewhere mentioning lack of DH employee involvement with the community.
Look, I've been a very vocal member of my business community for the last 15 years. A couple years after my first exposure to our public business forums I was also hired at the company around which much of our community focuses - much like your change here. After that my employer got uptight about a lot of my public commentary, especially when I was openly critical of the company itself for some of the stupid things they did. At one point I was banned from using my company email address in public forums. When management changed I was specifically asked to openly participate in forums and to be openly welcoming and volunteering whatever sort of criticism I wanted - bearing in mind that that ultimate objective was to make the products better, the clients happier, and to get more business in the process. This 180 degree shift shows the range of opportunity for an employee to participate in a public forum.
With that in mind I am REALLY hoping that your participation in these forums continues as normal. There's nothing wrong with being critical of some policy. The difference is the presentation. Here, all we can do is say "this is great and that sux". In your position you can say "this sux but here is the reasoning behind the policy" or "yes, this may suk but it suks worse elsewhere, here's what DH does about it, and here's what they're talking about for later". People might disagree with the reasoning but they are far more inclined to be content in disagreement if they can simply understand the other side of the argument. Disagreement with a black box company ("this sux and I can't get any feedback from the company") only leads to lost business. Instilling the feeling that the customer base has someone - ANYONE - on the inside who can represent them and their concerns is a major way to endear and keep customers. People want an ombudsman, someone who will speak for them even if the answer is "no". Please do what you can to be that person with full buy-in from company management and participation from Support and maintenance people there.
