Following David''s suggestion, I''ve put the new "conditional validations" code in a separate ticket, abandoning #1196. http://dev.rubyonrails.com/ticket/1324 This new code also accommodates David''s lambda request, e.g.: validates_confirmation_of :email, :if => Proc.new { |user| user.signup_step > 2 } Duane Johnson (canadaduane)