Those donators have all been the quality this forum had at that time and we realize that when we read the threads from that time. They being missing is one of the reasons why the forum is in such a situation where spam is the first thing you see when you open a section to read something good.
Crypto has gone through stages and this forum has documented those stages.
The initial stage - where the focus was creation of the code and blockchain
The implementation stage - debugging and developing processes and applications - exchanges and payment systems.
The copycat stage - the introduction of alts and development of alternative technologies.
The ICO stage and masternode marketing stage. Where tokens and masternodes are being used to get rich quick.
There is still a lot of good stuff on Bitcointalk - it is just harder to find.
Watching the patrol page can be a bit disheartening.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=recent;patrolJust single sentence comments with no substance and bounty replies.
Looking into the "oldies" that were on here - a lot of them are still around.