Criticism of Second Life being silenced?

A number of gamers are upset over Linden Labs' recent announcement that the official forums for Second Life will begin closing down in a month, starting with sections like General Topics and the Bulletin Board. News and feedback will be centralized in a blog format. Officially, this is because the cost of maintaining them is too high when there are so many unofficial sites; there is wide suspicion in the blog comments however that the company may be trying to diminish public criticism, which is rampant. All parties seem to agree that much of the posting in the forums has been out of control.