Honestly, this adhoc change reflects an arrogance matched only by legacy airlines, major US political parties, and eBay. It screams "We did what was convenient for us, whaddya gonna do about it? Where else you gonna go?"
The legacy carriers are mostly bankrupt, 'nuff said.
The political parties are a mess of infighting at the moment.
eBay is learning its lesson as traffic was down in 2007 compared to 2006, with professional sellers moving to Amazon and the local sellers moving to craigslist.
Disregard your user base at your peril, lest some of your talented and influential users leave and work to build your competitor. When your community mods are unhappy enough to speak out publicly, you have serious problems.