I have given this some thought and think that MB should continue the White List, but at the same time delegate some form of control to the White List community.
The reason the came a white list in the first place was that there was a serious problem with abuse of the MB services and a small group of non-MB enthousiasts were at that time actively going through the new upvotes to find abusers and report them I the abuse channel. When the White list started the quality level improved drastically.
The reason that the quality level went down is that those same non-MB enthousiasts were not able to influence the direction of the list, other than their initial invitations and votes. This is where some changes need to be made. You guys said it yourselves, the list never really came out of beta and MB itself did not manage the quality and the non-MB moderators we not able to.
That does not mean the White List isn’t a good idea, it just means there’s some tweaking to do.
I would be more than happy to be a part of a solution.
If you guys choose not to continue the list I suppose that is your prerogative, but you should maintain share payments for users who were evaluated up to then. I strongly suggest though that you continue with the White List and include those who have proven to be willing to do their part.