Zylot, that's all well and good, and I really do agree that keeping the clinet based informed can be a good thing.
However, I really don't believe the forum has an implicit right to demand to know what's going on. A good example is World machine. Stephen very wisely set up a blog; Very simple, very clean, very manageable. The occasional note to say "I've done this" and "I'm doing that". But, it still doesn't mean we should be expected to be told everything, because what they tell us they also tell the world, and that includes any competition or potential competition. And then if they schedule it in public, all the competition has to do is assign half a dozen code monkeys to the task and strive to release it before Planetside can. Do you understand where I'm coming from?
Wanting to know is fully understandable, but that doesn't really mean it's a right to know. Planetside have a been a trillion times more accommodating to the forum than most companies would be IMHO, and I think a balance has tipped just a bit too much the wrong way. Then when they understandably do keep stuff under wraps, which is strictly speaking commercial information, there's a riot.