Here's the answer if you're using south and you want to default to the date you add the field to the database:
Choose option 2 then: datetime.datetime.now()
Looks like this:
$ ./manage.py schemamigration myapp --auto
? The field 'User.created_date' does not have a default specified, yet is NOT NULL.
? Since you are adding this field, you MUST specify a default
? value to use for existing rows. Would you like to:
? 1. Quit now, and add a default to the field in models.py
? 2. Specify a one-off value to use for existing columns now
? Please select a choice: 2
? Please enter Python code for your one-off default value.
? The datetime module is available, so you can do e.g. datetime.date.today()
>>> datetime.datetime.now()
+ Added field created_date on myapp.User