> The long version is that during user creation sometimes you have fields that for whatever reason are not required by the database but are required for the use

> The long version is that during user creation sometimes you have fields that for whatever reason are not required by the database but are required for the user to enter in. This is because user creation is often more complex than it seems on the surface, and there is already existing django.contrib.auth.views that need this sort of configuration. REQUIRED_FIELDS gives you the control to force the user to enter data while not not altering the database. Could you please explain this further? Is REQUIRED_FIELDS intended for use cases where some users are created by import/migration, but others by sign-up forms (with more requirements)? From grepping the 1.5beta1 source code, it appears that the only place where REQUIRED_FIELDS is actually read is in contrib/auth/management/commands/createsuperuser.py.