Only you could possibly be bothered by something that trivial.
Well, why change it?
What Valith said was obviously very arrogant but had he only used the word "support" instead of "donate" he actually has a valid point. Are we not all supporters?
Any contribution; comments, critisisms, etc, along with general good will towards to site is certainly a show of support. In fact, that's the bulk of support. All the donations in the world would do nothing without users making posts. Especially true in the case of the "staff" posting on the front page.
"Donor" is a much better world for those who donate.
As I said earlier, the idea was always to take donations so the site could be ad free. Ad free for everyone. Some can afford to donate, others can't but we're all part of the community. People didn't donate to get a shiny golden label to set them appart. Specially blinged up to encourage "support".
But, apparently, we're getting ads too - regardless of costs being met or not. Tal can say sorcerers isn't infested with ads but just click the link and have a look. Would be a sad day to see all those banners and online casino ads on RPGwatch.
"Doesn't bother me - I'm a Supporter! I get a different site!", you say.
Again, the donations of Watchers used to carry more weight and keep the site ad free for everyone. Now they don't. That isn't the value a donation used to have. This is a new subscription fee that doesn't
support the values we've always had.
Tal also talks about the "hidden costs" of the value of myrthos time working on the site. Who knows how much that's worth! So, if the sites meeting costs from donations and turning a profit from ugly ads, when do staff members get paid for their time? Heck, when does anyone contributing to a site entirely made entirely of user posts, generously donated by people like valith, get paid?
Is the actual reality that Tal just grabbed a free site, that gets similar traffic to his own, just to stuff it with ads, doubling his ad hits, and make a profit while paying the staff nothing while potentially already meeting server costs from the ads on sorcerers alone?