I think the "top contributors" would need to be based on evals by the various db admins, who would be in the best position to judge the accuracy of a member's contributions, rather than the old BBS bulk contribution system. That system lead to a lot of bad files being repetatively posted to all sorts of BBS's.
Mind you, I'm happy with the current method of cash donations. I contribute whatever information I have, but it will never be a significant amount since I don't live in a major metro area. BUT, I feel that some form of recognition for the top contributors is a good idea. The current list is in an out of the way location and probably not seen by many, some more public method might be a good idea. I frequent a local area board that uses this same software, and there are various icons available, similiar to our donating member and admin icons. Some form of public recognition like this might be a good idea, and granting donating member privledges to these members who haven't made cash donations would seem fair.
Again, it would take an evaluation by the db admins to determine if a member is qualified, so that would require an extra effort. This would be up to Lindsay to decide if he wants to try this kind of system out.
Just my two cent's worth!
Mark S.