No, you didn't need to explain that. (I hear ya though.)
Yes, they are probably wrong. However, unlike the recent LinkedIn leak, at the moment we know almost nothing about how they were storing passwords. (Although, according to a thread on their forums, they did leave a user's previous and current passwords both simultaneously active -- not a good sign.)
I think that HN didn't used to so readily confuse speculation and facts.
A lot of game companies don't get valid email addresses from most of their user baseso if they don't have a good email to authenticate a password reset, leaving the old password active sometimes is the only option to authenticate users for a password reset.
Well, considering they said they compared "hashes" later on, and the hopeful unlikeliness that they were really using symmetric encryption, I feel like it's a pretty sure educated guess and not just a knee-jerk reaction.
edit: I didn't mean to be personally chastizing in my first post, I'm just extremely distraught at the advice I see in these threads, the continued confusion of people and the fact that people with massive userbases either aren't paying attention or are in this ignorant group of "it won't happen to me" people.
Yes, they are probably wrong. However, unlike the recent LinkedIn leak, at the moment we know almost nothing about how they were storing passwords. (Although, according to a thread on their forums, they did leave a user's previous and current passwords both simultaneously active -- not a good sign.)
I think that HN didn't used to so readily confuse speculation and facts.