@Sleutel - I agree, and ultimately there's a privacy/accountability trade-off here. At the moment I think it's rather too easy to drop one's existing identity - we have at least three probable "serial ninjas" on our server who appear to change names as often as they can, then come back into groups and raids with new, untraceable identities.

OK, here's a modified proposal: when a player changes name/race/server/faction, they can choose whether to keep their existing reputation (keep their ID) or drop it (be assigned a new ID). This means it's no longer possible to track ninjas over time, as they'll always drop IDs; instead, as part of the social side, players will learn to be wary of seeing character histories of "Notaninja (level 80 Tauren death knight). First seen: 3 days ago. 0 ratings." Meanwhile, characters who have built up a "good trading history" can elect to carry it with them when they transfer.

Would such a system ease some of your concerns?

(Why the ID when there are names, by the way? Two reasons: firstly, so that characters can carry their history between servers. Secondly, so that a character created on the same server as a former ninja, with that ninja's name, doesn't pick up that ninja's history by accident)