Remove default value from user model, but add it upon creation (i.e. affecting new users).

services/web/app/coffee/Features/User/UserCreator.coffee

@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ module.exports =
 		user = new User()
 		user.email = opts.email
 		user.holdingAccount = opts.holdingAccount
+		user.ace.syntaxValidation = true
 
 		username = opts.email.match(/^[^@]*/)
 		if opts.first_name? and opts.first_name.length != 0

services/web/app/coffee/models/User.coffee

@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ UserSchema = new Schema
 							autoComplete:   {type : Boolean, default: true}
 							spellCheckLanguage :   {type : String, default: "en"}
 							pdfViewer   :   {type : String, default: "pdfjs"}
-							syntaxValidation   :   {type : Boolean, default: true}
+							syntaxValidation   :   {type : Boolean}
 						}
 	features		  : {
 							collaborators: { type:Number,  default: Settings.defaultFeatures.collaborators }