I think goose made a pretty good arguement in support of buying accounts with preexisting trust:
I remember having an argument discussion with a good friend 6 or so months ago about the buying and selling of accounts on here. He seeing no issues with it, and me dead against it. He is a succussful businessman and likened it to goodwill of a business when that business is sold. Although that goodwill was built by the previous owner it still survives in the business under the new owner and is valued with a considerable premium and so on... I likened it to a personal credit rating - it is a rating for that person alone, it cannot be traded and should not be traded and so on.
--snip--
I think comparing account trust to a company's goodwill is pretty weak too. I like his comparison better.
Companies goodwill is not defined by the biggest stakeholder, at least for the most part.
As opposed to account trust which is worth nothing more than whoever holds it.
I agree. A company is a separate legal entity while a forum account is certainly not.
Moreover, we have a legal system to protect against using the reputation of a company for malicious purposes, while it mostly becomes unenforceable and impractical (to a significant degree) in case of forum accounts. (Relative anonymity, near zero chance of claiming damages etc.)
I think it is only fair to remove previous trust feedbacks if an account changes hands (at least when the community comes to know about it).
