It's funny because you are trying to one up skiierman by saying you live 20 mins from Cannon, but skiierman lives in Utah in skis actual mountains now.
As for donating, I did it because of how much this site has done for me. Not in some overly dramatized kind of way, but it's an incredible source of knowledge/info for all things skiing that has taught me a lot and given me some quality entertainment for those times when I can't be out on the hill. Plus, when I donated there wasn't much in the way of adds on the site and they relied a lot more heavily on donations to keep things running and make improvements. As for the donator forum, it's just a nice place with some epic threads and good members who post legit things and give good responses.