That sounds like an extreme case. No site should require that much unless it was for servers. Donation to keep a site premium to maintain features like having mature content is fine- they’re typically not that expensive either. But anything else, like skin, is a definite no-no. The fact that you guys have been paying consistently is insane.

The one time I donated (and a p big amount) was for the purchase of a skin. The admin then banned me and then took the skin and closed the site in a power trip. Which is - off-topic - wildly not as crazy as an admin banning me after working my ass for the site as its most active staff member and regular member for a year and creating bots and its main system AFTER i stepped down gracefully while helping them still sort out mechanics and adjusting bc that’s how big of a vacuum hole me stepping down did that i had to say it months in advance-

Yeah you guys better just run off with your community. There’s literally nothing you guys can do or anyone can do if the keys are behind held by crazy and exploitive people.

Oh I quite agree, these are extreme cases. I can point to two sites in particular that I know do this and both have various rewards for those donations. Many of the listed rewards are for donations above the $20 mark. I just feel some type of way about pay-to-play in general when it comes to RPs. I get site have needs for certain things and I don't think its wrong for owners to ask for donations but a donation is a donation on the grounds there is nothing expected as a reward. I think these site owners are more so on a greed driven mission rather than one to improve their members' quality of life while on the site. I think I could be a lot more understanding if said owner was commissioning artwork for the site but they're literally just pulling whatever they find interesting off Google. I feel like Proboards and other domains in general should have more proactive means to stopping this but I guess its hard to monitor and its not illegal to write fanfiction. Just miffs me that people are using other people's hard work for profit and I doubt they've given any monetary contribution to those artist. 

Donations for IC rewards puts me off, so I don't really join sites that do it. It feels... weird, and honestly kinda limiting.

I've never encountered a site that takes donations or ever joined one, but I don't see any inherent problem with it. I personally can't afford to ever purchase jcink premium, but I could see the appeal of asking for members to help put money towards getting it. Or, if a forum is self-hosted then that makes a lot more sense to ask for donations for, too.

Like anything, donations don't seem inherently "unfair" to me. Roleplay is a hobby that comes with a high labor cost so asking members to help with any financial costs just makes sense for a shared hobby.

Donating for IC rewards is definitely unfair, though.

I dislike donations for IC rewards, in situations where the rewards can be obtained through RP or rushed to using real money, and especially when they’re not obtainable without money. My philosophy is IC rewards should be rewards for roleplaying ICly, and not be pay-to-win. There’s been sites I haven’t joined because I realized they rewarded donations with important in-character stuff. Life situation permits me to spend money very rarely on anything other than essentials, so I pay (hah) close attention. Donations for OoC rewards are generally fine in my book, but it is always best to be critical and ensure the money is actually going where staff say it’s going.

In your situation, yeah, I wouldn’t stay there. The advice earlier was good — convince the members of the community who you like writing with to move somewhere else. There will always be other RP sites, and if push comes to shove, putting aside the time to make your own, based on your own ethics and principles, can end up really worth it, as you’ll find like-minded people. A better RP forum is possible.

i saw some rp forum do that once and from what i remember it was a pretty pay-to-play type deal. you could level up a character / get popular powers from the show it was based on if you paid x amount of real life cash. it had an active member base so i just tipped my hat with respect and moved on.

however, it's not right to me for a team to try and pool for donations when running costs are free or very low if you decide to pay. esp if it's for in-character benefits. to put it into perspective... unless you're hosting the site yourself, the costs of upkeep with premium service and a custom domain isn't expensive to afford. for example, jcink premium is $9.99/month and it includes a bundle of benefits. proboards seems a bit pricier but it doesn't seem to be much over $20/month. then, a custom domain is typically paid for yearly and most are very cheap (around $10/year).

those expenses are all optional too and not required to run a forum whatsoever. even cosmetic upgrades such as skins or custom scripts are nice but not needed.

i'd be more accepting if the work put into the site went above and beyond what a typical site does. it'd have to be very customized and offer content worth donating such large sums for (ie. lore books, custom artwork, unique and complex codes, etc.). then, i'd say the staff team would be earning the right to do so. but similar to what wraith said, it's good to be critical and know where the money is going.

overall, i'd say y'all should leave while you're ahead of the game if it doesn't sit well with you. they're doing what mobile game companies do but without the expenses of an actual business that has paid employees. not sure if it's illegal either but if the roleplay is based on copyrighted media, that is something to think about too. not that anyone would get into serious trouble but it could get the forum removed / shut down without notice.