Validate not working?

Hello,

My validate is not working, I don’t know why, it just stopped working?

Model:

class User < ActiveRecord::Base
validates_presence_of :nickname, :email, :password
validates_confirmation_of :password
validates_length_of :nickname, :password, :within => 5…40
validates_uniqueness_of :nickname, :email
validates_format_of :email, :with =>
/^([^@\s]+)@((?:[-a-z0-9]+.)+[a-z]{2,})$/i
end

Controller:

def signup
if request.post?
user = User.new(params[:user])
if user.save
flash[:notice] = “Signup successful”
redirect_to :action => ‘login’
end
end
end

View:

<%= start_form_tag :action=> “signup” %>
<%= error_messages_for ‘user’ %>

Desired nickname:
<%= text_field "user", "nickname", :size => 20 %>
<dt><label for="user_login">Email:</label></dt>
<dd><%= text_field "user", "email", :size => 30 %></dd>

<dt><label for="user_password">Choose password:</label></dt>
<dd><%= password_field "user", "password", :size => 30 %></dd>

<dt><label for="user_password_confirmation">Confirm

password:

<%= password_field “user”, “password_confirmation”, :size => 30
%>
<dt></dt>
<dd><input type="submit" value="Signup &#187;" class="primary"

/>

<%= end_form_tag %>

Can anyone see anything wrong??

*Someone told me its old way to use

@user = ‘something’

well, I don’t know where he got this information from, this @ didn’t get
my validate to work, seems everything you put @ beside it will be giving
access to it from your views or else only in your controller.