Is there any user whitelisted by you or your team members that has risen to the rank of a Hero member?
I don't have "a team"
Feel free to check
the list, but I'll highlight some of the more obvious users:
Synchronice,
n0nce and
PowerGlove. I can't know for sure if they would otherwise have paid the evil fee, created a new account (with a less cool name), or just have abandoned the forum (that's what I would have done if I had to pay to register) after their proxyban, but I'm glad I could whitelist them. To highlight:
0.7% of all Merit ever sent was sent to users who I whitelisted. Obviously I can't take the credit for this, those users earned their Merits by themselves, but I'm glad I could contribute a bit. With only 8
* banned whitelisted users so far, I consider this a big win for the forum.
Sometimes, innocent people become collateral damage. This is generally considered as unfair and very unwelcoming.
It still is.
* Disclaimer: this data is a month old.