Buying contributor status now is pretty gay. There are other, more awesome ways to help the site out now.
all you get is a little symbol next to your name and access to a a cute little forum that is the equivalent of 20 threads nominating eheath for mod and a google image search for "hot girl" with safe search on.
Most of the people (I think) who have the little cute money symbols next to their name donated to the site back before it ran off add money. There was in fact a time when this site was just a small little place and $10-$30 from members actually made a difference. After the death of NS clothing circa summer 2004, there were no shirts or other stuff to sell, due to budget and time constraints.
Now if you want to support the site, buy a shirt or sticker and you can advertise for them too...
Anytime people try and buy status, it just makes them look retarded. Although non of us really did anything to earn the donator symbol, it really is cheating the system. I remember back when their was a huge debate about to continue to accept donations after NS went to 411 or whatever it was. NS could not actually accept donations, but people still wanted a way to support the site. I believe this was before the second version of the store (possibly 3rd?), and you could not buy an NS shirt, unless you found one from 2003 that someone wanted to sell. Thus they continued to allow people to send money, called it a contribution, and sent them a sticker pack.
In point: there are better ways to contribute now, that help the site just as much, if not more then just contributing.
