Currently, the syntax for creating column families is like this: create column family Users with comparator=UTF8Type and default_validation_class=UTF8Type and key_validation_class=UTF8Type;
It's not clear what "comparator" and "default_validation_class" refer to. Much clearer would be: create column family Users with column_name_comparator=UTF8Type and column_value_validation_class=UTF8Type and key_validation_class=UTF8Type; BTW, instead of "column_name_comparator", I'd actually prefer "column_key_comparator" since it seems more accurate to call column names "column keys." Don