A painful fact is many VIP/ Donator member accounts got hacked, changed hands, turned to scammers or left the forum.
Perhaps it would be better to say that they deserve thanks, but you also have to take into account the time in which these donations happened - which was mostly at a time when the price of BTC was very low, and people were mining with their computers and for each block received as much as 50 BTC reward.
Without a doubt, they deserve all the thanks, even if they are no longer active on the forum, or their accounts have disappeared.
Because thanks to these donors, it is possible today for the forum to be very active and with sufficient funds to remain that way for many years. Therefore, all of us today must remain grateful to these people, who at the time thought they gave little, but ended up being a lot.