Hmmm, if I understand it right, he complained about their/his own forum. So I don't know what he thinks is an official forum[s], since both are free accessible AND it's the board of the author...(is there anything more official?)
If they exclude everyone,who snarks, rants or criticizes, they'll withdraw themselves into LKH's famous ivory tower. The books will become worse than they are now, thanks to all the "Laurell, don't listen to them, because I understood what you said" people. But if they can't stand a normal critic, it says more over them as they probably think.
*Sorry, I worked too much during the last weeks and I'm little bit confused*