Forum earn more than enough money by selling ad slots and any kind of donations are not really needed. They also have hugenumber of Bitcoins in reserves.
And if Theymos himself says that the forum isn't in need of any more funds, there's no way I'm going to donate. As much as I'm grateful for bitcointalk being here, there's no use giving someone else your money when they don't need it and you've got no idea how it would be spent anyway.
As far as the copper membership goes, it's a good tollgate for members who want to begin signature campaigns as soon as they join bitcointalk and that's about it, though having some of the other restrictions lifted definitely makes life easier here. If you're above Newbie rank, I'm not sure why you'd buy one. I don't see it as any sort of status symbol, just proof that you're willing to throw money away on a title that doesn't give you any benefits you don't already have. Quickseller was one of the first non-noobs I'd noticed who'd bought a copper membership, and to this day I have no idea why he did that.
I think moderators who get paid for helping keep this place clean would disagree with that statement. It is quite an achievement what was built here and theymos using advertiser funds to help make this community better well into the future doesn't seem like greed to me.
I was under the impression that mods didn't make much money for their efforts. I've never heard anyone mention the pay rate (nor do I expect to, as it's none of my business), but in any case I don't think it's a huge expense for the forum. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Edit:
I didn't say moderators were a huge expense to the forum. I said they get paid and that they don't think theymos is greedy. The latter is an assumption on my part, but I believe it is an accurate one.
I wasn't disagreeing with you; I don't think Theymos is greedy either. I'm actually curious as to how much mods get paid, but I don't expect anyone to answer that, nor am I even asking the question. I've always suspected it wasn't much and probably got that notion from something someone wrote a long time ago.