I work as a UX designer for almost 2 years. And I think design in a transparent environment is really important.
Sometimes I think all the people in the team should know why the product is designed like this. Actually, the fact is just like that. Programers would like to tell you their thoughts about design even though their suggestions may be not appropriate at all. But if you don't explain the reasons, some parts of the product may be totally different from what you thought they would be. Because you can't explain all the things with the docs. There are always some points we miss.
So like the OP said, it's a good solution to build an open work environment where anyone can see what other members of the team are working on, including programers. You will get the feedback at the first time, and you will find it becomes simpler to explain the design to others in the team.
You should know the difference between users, like readers and producer. Obviously, you need producer come to your website and create the content, if you don't want to "fake it" all the time. Readers will be attracted if the content is good enough.
So the problem is how to convince the producer to write here even though there is nearly no reader here.
Maybe "share" can be a good option.
Producer can take your website as a tool and you can show the content to more users.
I already have many apps to track my daily life, like how many steps today, how long I used my phone today, how much money I spent today. But the real problem is what I should do next according to these numbers.
I know a tool named WEAVI. You can share your systematic content there. But you need to upload your content yourself. I use it to organize my work stuff and it seems to work well. http://weavi.com/@/1
Great website. But compared with hardware and software, I am more interested in what "tools" they use to help them work better, like their ways of thinking.
Sometimes I think all the people in the team should know why the product is designed like this. Actually, the fact is just like that. Programers would like to tell you their thoughts about design even though their suggestions may be not appropriate at all. But if you don't explain the reasons, some parts of the product may be totally different from what you thought they would be. Because you can't explain all the things with the docs. There are always some points we miss.
So like the OP said, it's a good solution to build an open work environment where anyone can see what other members of the team are working on, including programers. You will get the feedback at the first time, and you will find it becomes simpler to explain the design to others in the team.