Open Question to Netgear - What are Your Intentions?

When I was looking to buy a NAS more than 2 years ago, I knew that ReadyNAS was an option, but didn't want to consider it. Why? Because it was a Netgear product, and I've found Netgear support to be sometimes almost OK, but usually pretty darned bad. The only Netgear products I would buy are the cheapie gigabit switches for home use.

But while researching the various NAS products, the enthusiastic ReadyNAS users kept making me think that maybe it was an OK product, but no no no no... no Netgear stuff for me.

Then I found this forum. Holy smokes! Real enthusiastic support! From users! And third party app support that seemed to cover all sorts of things I never considered asking a NAS to do! So I bit the bullet, and bought an Ultra 6. I totally LOVE it! And I posted some of my experiences here as well so that others could know what I'd run into, and contribute to the community.

A couple days ago I saw a killer deal on an Ultra 6 at a local Fry's, and thought about checking to see why there was such a big price drop. I then saw the new models and features, and thought "hmmm... sounds nice". (Sure I'd like some new features on my Ultra 6, but I don't feel ripped off or anything.)

Then I came here to get the REAL scoop on the new models and features.

Um... yikes! This forum seems dead now. It used to be a happy, thriving place, but now it seems sad and lonely. The whole reason why I bought my NAS is effectively gone. Which means that for new issues I'd probably have to rely on standard Netgear support, and yeah, I don't feel like sticking my eye with a pointed stick any more than necessary.

Companies live and die by how well they are able to develop and maintain loyalty. This forum was it for me. The community is not gone, but it's certainly feels like it's on life-support. That's OK, things change. Fortunately, I can change too. To a different brand.

I still love my ReadyNAS, and I still hate Netgear. I always had it in the back of my mind that Netgear might somehow ruin this forum, and get ReadyNAS support to fall in line with how they support their other products. Looks like they're doing it. It's just too bad that they have delusions of adequacy when it comes to support.

It was great while it lasted!

(BTW, to others who have mentioned Synology - we have 2 of them here at work and neither of them support scheduled surface scans. So if a drive is going bad you won't know it until you access the file on the bad spot, or if you're really really unlucky, when it's doing a rebuild when a different drive fails, at which point the rebuild will probably fail. Better hope you have a good backup when that happens! Make sure any NAS you get allows you to schedule surface scans!)