diff --git a/ttadmin/users/forms.py b/ttadmin/users/forms.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..be11fe3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ttadmin/users/forms.py
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+from random import shuffle
+import re
+
+from django.core.exceptions import ValidationError
+from django.forms import Form, CharField, EmailField, Textarea, ChoiceField, BooleanField
+import sshpubkeys as ssh
+
+from .models import SSH_TYPE_CHOICES
+
+USERNAME_RE = re.compile(r'[a-z][a-z0-9_]+')
+USERNAME_MIN_LENGTH = 4
+DISPLAY_NAME_RE = re.compile(r"[a-zA-Z0-9_\-']+")
+DISPLAY_MIN_LENGTH = 2
+
+# >_>
+CAPTCHA_CHOICES = [('two', 'zorp borp'),
+                   ('three', 'quop bop'),
+                   ('four', 'NO, I AM NOT A ROBOT'),
+                   ('five', 'crackle zop'),
+                   ('six', '*rusty screech*'),
+                   ('seven', 'mother, give me legs')]
+shuffle(CAPTCHA_CHOICES)
+CAPTCHA_CHOICES.insert(0, ('one', 'beep boop'),)
+NOT_A_ROBOT = 'four'
+# <_<
+
+def validate_username(username):
+    if len(username) < USERNAME_MIN_LENGTH:
+        raise ValidationError('Username too short.')
+    if not USERNAME_RE.match(username):
+        raise ValidationError('Username must be all lowercase, start with a letter, and only use the _ special charcter')
+
+def validate_displayname(display_name):
+    if len(display_name) < DISPLAY_MIN_LENGTH:
+        raise ValidationError('Display name too short.')
+    if not DISPLAY_NAME_RE.match(display_name):
+        raise ValidationError("Valid characters: a-z, A-Z, 0-9, -, _, and '.")
+
+def validate_pubkey(pubkey):
+    key = ssh.SSHKey(pubkey, strict_mode=False, skip_option_parsing=True)
+    try:
+        key.parse()
+    except ssh.InvalidKeyException as e:
+        raise ValidationError('Could not validate key: {}'.format(e))
+    except NotImplementedError as e:
+        raise ValidationError('Invalid key type')
+    except Exception as e:
+        raise ValidationError('unknown error: {}'.format(e))
+
+def validate_captcha(captcha):
+    if captcha != NOT_A_ROBOT:
+        raise ValidationError('Are you sure you are not a robot?')
+
+
+class TownieForm(Form):
+    username = CharField(
+        validators=(validate_username,),
+        help_text='lowercase and no spaces. underscore ok',
+        label='username')
+    email = EmailField(
+        help_text='only used to message you about your account and nothing else.',
+        label='e-mail')
+    displayname = CharField(
+        validators=(validate_displayname,),
+        help_text='100% optional. pseudonyms welcome.',
+        label='display name',
+        required=False)
+    reasons = CharField(
+        widget=Textarea,
+        required=False,
+        label='what interests you about tilde.town?',
+        help_text='This is a totally optional place for you to tell us what excites you about getting a ~ account. This is mainly just so we can all feel warm fuzzies.')
+    captcha = ChoiceField(
+        choices=CAPTCHA_CHOICES,
+        label='are you a robot?',
+        help_text='pick the response that indicates whether or not you are a robot.',
+        validators=(validate_captcha,)
+    )
+    pubkey = CharField(
+        widget=Textarea,
+        validators=(validate_pubkey,),
+        label='SSH public key',
+        help_text='if this is not a thing you are familiar with, that\'s okay! check out <a href="https://tilde.town/~wiki/ssh.html">our guide</a> to learn how to get one of these.')
+    pubkey_type = ChoiceField(
+        choices=SSH_TYPE_CHOICES,
+        label='SSH public key type',
+        help_text="unless you know what you're doing you can leave this be.")
+    aup = BooleanField(
+        label='i super agree to our acceptable use policy',
+        help_text='please read our <a href="https://tilde.town/~wiki/conduct.html">code of conduct</a> and click this box if you agree.')
+
+    def clean(self):
+        result = super().clean()
+        if self.errors:
+            raise ValidationError('oops, looks like there were some problems below.')
+        return result
+
+
diff --git a/ttadmin/users/models.py b/ttadmin/users/models.py
index 9d45224..20d234e 100644
--- a/ttadmin/users/models.py
+++ b/ttadmin/users/models.py
@@ -1,19 +1,24 @@
+import re
+
 from django.db.models.signals import post_save
 from django.dispatch import receiver
 from django.contrib.auth.models import User
 from django.db.models import TextField, BooleanField, CharField
 
+
 SSH_TYPE_CHOICES = (
     ('ssh-rsa', 'ssh-rsa',),
     ('ssh-dss', 'ssh-dss',),
 )
 
+
 class Townie(User):
     """Both an almost normal Django User as well as an abstraction over a
     system user."""
     pubkey = TextField(blank=False, null=False)
     shell = CharField(max_length=50, default="/bin/bash")
     reviewed = BooleanField(default=False)
+    reasons = TextField(blank=True, null=False, default='')
     displayname = CharField(max_length=100, blank=False, null=False)
     pubkey_type = CharField(max_length=15,
                             blank=False,
diff --git a/ttadmin/users/urls.py b/ttadmin/users/urls.py
index 9e4f7ba..b11c6d3 100644
--- a/ttadmin/users/urls.py
+++ b/ttadmin/users/urls.py
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 from django.conf.urls import url
 
-from .views import UserSignupView
+from .views import SignupView, ThanksView
 
 app_name = 'users'
 urlpatterns = [
-        url(r'^signup/?$', UserSignupView.as_view(), name='signup'),
-
+    url(r'^signup/?$', SignupView.as_view(), name='signup'),
+    url(r'^thanks/?$', ThanksView.as_view(), name='thanks'),
 ]
diff --git a/ttadmin/users/views.py b/ttadmin/users/views.py
index 7869981..52f657a 100644
--- a/ttadmin/users/views.py
+++ b/ttadmin/users/views.py
@@ -1,48 +1,37 @@
+import re
+
+from django.core.exceptions import ValidationError
+from django.forms import Form, CharField, EmailField, Textarea, ChoiceField, BooleanField
 from django.http import HttpResponse
+from django.shortcuts import redirect
 from django.views.generic import TemplateView
+from django.views.generic.edit import FormView
+from django.urls import reverse
 
-from .models import Townie, SSH_TYPE_CHOICES
+from .forms import TownieForm
+from .models import Townie
 
-# TODO validation functions for final request validation and live js validation
-# I refuse to duplicate the logic for validation on the front-end and am going
-# to accept round-trip validation costs with long-term caching.
+class SignupView(FormView):
+    form_class = TownieForm
+    template_name = 'users/signup.html'
+    # TODO reverse
+    success_url = '/thanks'
 
-class UserSignupView(TemplateView):
-    template_name = 'ttadmin/signup.html'
+    def form_valid(self, form):
 
-    def get_context_data(self):
-        ctx = super().get_context_data()
-        ctx['ssh_type_choices'] = SSH_TYPE_CHOICES
-        return ctx
+        #t = Townie(
+        #    username=username,
+        #    displayname=displayname,
+        #    pubkey=pubkey,
+        #    email=email,
+        #)
 
-    def post(self, request):
-        print(request.POST)
-        # TODO validate
-        username = request.POST.get('username')
+        #t.set_unusable_password()
+        #t.save()
 
-        displayname = request.POST.get('displayname')
-
-        if displayname is None:
-            displayname = username
-        else:
-            # TODO validate
-            pass
-
-        # TODO validate
-        pubkey = request.POST.get('pubkey')
-
-        # TODO validate
-        email = request.POST.get('email')
-
-        t = Townie(
-            username=username,
-            displayname=displayname,
-            pubkey=pubkey,
-            email=email,
-        )
-
-        t.set_unusable_password()
-        t.save()
+        return super().form_valid(form)
 
 
-        return HttpResponse('LOLOLOLOL')
+# TODO add template for this once i've fixed template directories
+class ThanksView(TemplateView):
+    template_name = 'users/thanks.html'