User and Account model - Whats the theory behind this?
Today I've been reading the Rails Antipatterns book. There's a topic on page 25, where it speaks of two models: User and Account.

The reason? Some would say data separation / separation of concerns ([SoC][1]).

The Account model should have stuff that isn't specific to the functionality of the user, but is related to their account. 

So for example: personal information (first_name, last_name) go into the Account model while username/ email, password etc go into the User model.

Is this the common approach for most situations? I am trying to understand why there are two models involved. In most situations, shouldn't having a User model be enough? What is the benefit of having an Account model as well?

  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_concerns
User and Account model - Whats the theory behind this?
===

Today I've been reading the Rails Antipatterns book. There's a topic on page 25, where it speaks of two models: User and Account.

The reason? Some would say data separation / separation of concerns ([SoC][1]).

The Account model should have stuff that isn't specific to the functionality of the user, but is related to their account. 

So for example: personal information (first_name, last_name) go into the Account model while username/ email, password etc go into the User model.

Is this the common approach for most situations? I am trying to understand why there are two models involved. In most situations, shouldn't having a User model be enough? What is the benefit of having an Account model as well?

  [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_of_concerns