I'm a little puzzled that DreamHost keeps getting mentioned here so much.

I looked into it a few months ago solely because people here kept mentioning it.

I was, uh, not to put too fine a point on it, "sorely non-plussed".

From my point of view it seems they have a long legacy of vast incompetence and total disregard for their customers.

They like to frequently write up long memos about "here's what happened, but it wasn't really our fault, and it was just a one-time thing, and nothing like this will ever happen again" until the next "one-time thing" happens -- usually within a month or two.

I mean, come on! Until just a few months ago they didn't even have the default directory permissions set up right. Any user could poke around in other users' directories and grab their database passwords, etc. Yet you feel secure, because they offer you the charade of letting you use secure ftp and ssh.
Right....

Let's be honest here. These guys have been around for a decade. And if they STILL don't have their stuff together, then it just ain't gonna happen.

That being said, I have never been a DreamHost customer, so this is just rampant speculation on my part.
But THAT being said, it's scary enough speculation that I seriously doubt I will ever BE a DreamHost customer.