Yea I feel a ton of people are going to lose their accounts now. Like at least give the option to reset, then if people don't reset it's on them.
We understand why you feel this way, but unfortunately, this isn't possible. Passwords have to be reset because tech is changing how passwords are encrypted/stored in the database.
Let's say (obviously this isn't the case, but it's easier to illustrate things this way) that passwords were encrypted in the database by taking the next letter in the alphabet. So if your password was "PASSWORD", it'd be stored as "QBTTXPSE" in the database. Well, obviously this isn't very secure, so changing to a less obvious encryption algorithm, we're instead shifting to (again, stressing that these are in no way how passwords are encrypted in the actual database!) using the next key on the right of the actual key used. So "PASSWORD" instead gets stored as "ÅSDDEPTF" (if you're basing it off a Swedish keyboard, which I am, because that's what I'm typing on).
When you're logging in, the site doesn't actually check if your password matches what's in the database, it runs what you wrote in the password field through the encryption algorithm and checks THAT against what's int he database. So if your password isn't reset, you'll type in "PASSWORD", and the server will turn that into "ÅSDDEPTF" and see that that's not the same as "QBTTXPSE", so it'll tell you "wrong password" even though from your end, what you put in is the exact same password you've been using all along.
Computers are kind of stupid that way, I'm afraid. So yeah, no way to avoid resetting all passwords. We'll be posting instructions for reclaiming accounts when we get to that point, not to worry. (Though this should serve as a reminder to ALWAYS make sure your contact info is up to date on your online accounts! You never know when you might need it!) And never use "password" as your password for anything but illustration/demonstration purposes.
