Convince me to stick with ReadyNAS

I couldn't agree with you more. The bad thing is I truly believe that Netgear makes a quality product—hardware wise. But, as you've stated, they really need to get more involved with their existing client base. I think a lot of the Star Wars tech guys have moved on to other companies, which is a real shame because Netgear has no idea how valuable those employees were. There are some things you just don't see on a performance review and that was one of them. I also agree that Netgear NAS software is sorely lagging. In fact, upon review of the Synology platform, and their accompanying software and plug ins, it looks like they are a company that has been around for decades. Strange that they're just coming to light.

On another note, Synology needs to learn this lesson as well. I've noticed that they're not as involved in their own community forums as well. :)