jeez I took a peek at this thread a few days ago and did not expect to ever see my name (along with #2FAB4U) mentioned. I am deeply humbled and incredibly appreciative of the sweet comments—seriously, I was blushing badly.
As for people I looked up to in the past when I was first active on the forum, Ingredient and FoxPhilosopher stood out to me definitely. Their posts were just very well-thought out and they showed obvious interest in the community. Some others were Ruby1234, jengatower/WolfQueen, Kiaz, peete, and LordSuragaha, among others. Currently, I look up to anyone that I believe to be genuine, passionate, and most importantly, open-minded. I am relatively vocal if I believe someone is, so it's pretty easy to tell who I look up to, and usually they know who they are.