There is a reason the mods and owners of both Gaia AND Subeta are telling people to change their passwords. Several months ago, before the Longcat debacle on Subeta, someone hacked the user database and decrypted the passwords so they could hack Subeta accounts. At that time, we were told to change our passwords because of a security breach.
The current owners and mods of Subeta are NOT hacking accounts, neither here, nor on Subeta.
However, it doesn't hurt to change your password on a regular basis anyway. It's just good security practice you should do with any website requiring a login.
If you do use the same username and password here that you did on Subeta, it's a good idea to change it. The same people who were attacking Subeta for the Longcat issue also dislike Gaia, and most likely will not bat an eyelash at the prospect of getting into a Gaia account and cause trouble.
However, using the same username and password combo on multiple sites, as well as not changing that password on a regular basis, is just a bad idea anyway. Banks, credit cards, company intranets, and other highly secure websites will force you to change your password every few months or so. You should do it anyway, whether you think someone stole your password or not.
Also, the longer and more unusual you make the password, the more secure it is. NEVER use your username as a password. Also, don't use regular words. Replace letters with numbers or special characters. Use a mix of capital letters and lowercase letters. The more you work at making your password harder to guess, the better off you'll be.
This was recently reiterated in an announcement from the Gaia admins as well. Please, please, please... for you own account security, use good security practices!!!
