Thanks to everyone for the feedback and answers thus far. I enjoy our forum as it is now as well. I like the idea of being able to create threads that have specific tags and people can choose to see particular tags. Much of this is up to how technical issues can be solved to enable our site to grow and respond to changes and updates. The source code and upgrades will remain open source on github and the mods and I are going to work with the new dev to try to make installation easier so people can test things out better and make improvements easier.
In terms of the donation, after thinking about this for the past couple of days and reading everyone's feedback here and privately, here are my thoughts. First, we don't do donation drives every year anyway; the pattern has been every two to three years, and I would like to keep it that way. If we are able to secure the $10,000 goal, it will take us time to find a dev and to do all the upgrades and updates, and it will be time and effort intensive for the mod team and I that we won't be able to keep it up every year and it's unlikely we can get another large donation again so soon. Second, as others have remarked, the necessary updates that we want to keep the site operating and growing over the next few years aren't going to be cheap or free, hence the need to raise a substantial amount of funds. If anyone donates a large amount of $500 or $1,000 or more, I want to honor that. At the same time, there is also the need to recognize those who have donated previously. Taking all that into account, here is what I propose as a compromise/solution:
1. The donation badge will last from one donation drive to the next with a minimum of two years, and the level depends on how much is donated in the donation cycle.
2. The donation levels stay as they are, but there are two separate pages honoring donations, one for the most current donation drive, and one for cumulative donation. As mentioned in #1, your donation badge that shows in your profile is determined by how much you donated in the most current donation drive, and your donation level will be shown in the current donation drive page. The other page, however, shows your cumulative level of donation, which can be different than your current donation drive. Your donation level in the cumulative page reflects the total amount (donation level shown, not dollar amount) that you have donated to the site.
To make this more concrete, I think some examples may clarify. For example, if you have never donated before, and you donate $50 today and $50 next year, your badge will be silver first and turn into gold the next year. If you donate in 2016 or in this current donation drive, it will last until the next donation drive or at least the beginning of 2019. If you donated $50 a while ago, say 2013 and you donate $50 this year, your badge level that shows on the site is silver, but in the cumulative page, your donation level is gold.
I think this solution will honor those who have donated currently and how much they donated but does not diminish how much they have donated to the site. It's important that we recognize that. Let me know if that makes sense or if more examples are needed.
On a related note, I want to briefly thank people who have donated to the site and those who have donated so far during this drive. I will provide an update of how much has been donated during this drive and the people at each donation level by the end of next week, and I will update this information periodically so we can all see how much has been donated and if we can meet or exceed our goal.