Thank you to the 12 individuals who have chosen to stand for election. This page contains their candidate statements submitted as part of the Django 6.x Steering Council elections.

To our departing Steering Council members, Adam Johnson, Andrew Godwin, James Bennett, Simon Charette – thank you for your contributions to Django and its governance ❤️.

Those eligible to vote in this election will receive information on how to vote shortly. Please check for an email with the subject line “Django 6.x Steering Council Voting”. Voting will be open until 23:59 on December 17, 2024 Anywhere on Earth.

Any questions? Reach out via email to [email protected].

All candidate statements ¶

To make it simpler to review all statements, here they are as a list of links. Voters: please take a moment to read all statements before voting!

1. Andrew Miller (he/him) — Cambridge, UK
2. Carlton Gibson (he/him) — Spain
3. Emma Delescolle (she/her) — Belgium
4. Frank Wiles (he/him) — Lawrence, Kansas, USA
5. Jake Howard (he/him) — UK
6. Lily Foote (she/her) — United Kingdom
7. Mark Walker — Chester, UK
8. Ryan Cheley (he/him) — California, US
9. Ryan Hiebert
10. Sage Abdullah (he/him) — Jakarta, Indonesia / Bristol, UK
11. Tim Graham — Philadelphia, PA USA
12. Tim Schilling (he/him) — United States

Andrew Miller (he/him) Cambridge, UK ¶

View personal statement

Hi there, for those that haven’t come across me yet, I’m very active on the Discord, joining a couple of years ago, I serve as a moderator and generally helping out. I have also authored a Working Group proposal that is almost ready to go live, pending Board approval. Finally I organise the monthly Django Social in Cambridge.

However perhaps what is most relevant to my nomination for the Steering Council are the blog posts I have written this year. They have been short & snappy where I have prodded and explained different aspects of using Django, the contributing process and other aspects of the community.

I am nominating myself for the Steering Council to ensure that Django has a secure future. Personally I have used Django for the last 12 years and it has been integral to my software engineering career. The last two and half years have been the best in terms of getting involved in the community and has increased my passion for improving Django itself and seeing it have a future beyond my personal usage.

While there is energy in the community, the technical vision has stagnated and needs a reboot. As Django is about to celebrate it’s 20th birthday, I want to see Django celebrate it’s 30th & 40th birthday’s and still be relevant to the world of web development. But what does that mean for us now as a community and how to do we ensure that future? In short I believe the next Steering Council needs to experiment with a range of ideas and gauge the community reaction to them. These ideas will form the first iteration of processes that future Steering Council’s can progress and mature.

To me these ideas need to focus on the following high level goals:

• Transparency & Consistency of communication
• Clearer, simpler Governance
• Vision of where Django could be in 10 or 20 years from now.
• Strengthening the community through teams that provides growth for each and every member

Each of these goals have plenty of actionable items… for example:

• Communication: Coordinate with the Board to recognise the work of the wider ecosystem of packages on the website and in other resources.
• Governance: Deeply examine the DEP process, simplify it where needed so we can normalise the process of writing a DEP to be closer to Forum post.
• Vision: Identify potential landmark features for the 6.X release cycle and beyond. Even propose what features might be in the Django 11.X cycle (10 years time).
• Teams: Start to create career tracks within the community, this would include Djangonaut space, Google Summer of Code, existing teams and new teams yet to be formed.

Do I expect this next Steering Council to achieve all of these goals above in one go? While these goals are idealistic, I expect this next Council to lay the foundations for futures Council’s to thrive and creating the on-ramps for a larger vibrant community of Djangonauts, ensuring the Django’s future is bright and secure.

Feel free to reach out to me if you have further questions about anything above.

Carlton Gibson (he/him) Spain ¶

View personal statement

I’m running for the Steering Council to help push Django forward over the 6.x release cycle.

We’re at an exciting time for the framework. There’s a whole fresh wave of new contributors keen to experiment. I think we should lean into that. My particular interest here is in helping to support, promote, and leverage the third party ecosystem better that we have done. I wrote at some length on that in my recent Thoughts on Django’s Core, if you’d like the details.

Beyond that, I want to help our mentoring effort. There’s a big gap between starting to contribute and staying to maintain. We’ve got all the resources we need to turn the new generation of Django’s contributors into its next generation of maintainers. That’s where I increasingly see my time and focus being spent over the coming years.

I was unsure whether to run for election or not. Whilst I was never part of the old Django Core, as a former Fellow, and maintainer of packages such DRF, django-filter, and crispy forms, I’m certainly towards the older-guard side of things, that we’ve heard much about in recent posts. We’re at a delicate time. With the governance updates needed, I feel that I still have lots to offer, and can be helpful in advancing those. As I say, I think we’re at an exciting time for the framework. I’d be honoured to serve if chosen.

Emma Delescolle (she/her) Belgium ¶

View personal statement

For a longer version of this statement you can read this post on my blog

For a video on similar topics, you can watch my recent Djangonaut Space session on YouTube

As a member of the Django community for the past 10 years, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing firsthand the project’s growth and evolution.

Over the decade, I’ve seen many exciting changes and improvements that have shaped Django into the powerful tool it is today.
However, I’ve also noticed a gradual slowing down of this evolution in recent years.

I have also benefited from said growth and Django’s reliability and stability as I have been running a business who’s main activity revolves around Django for that same amount of years. Whether it be creating, reviewing, maintaining or updating software.
My application to the steering council is one of the ways in which I can give back to the community.

With my candidacy as a member of the Django Steering Council, I want to highlight my focus on ensuring Django remains relevant and sustainable for the next 20 years.

Lowering the barrier to contribution and involving a more diverse set of contributors

Most code contributions merged into Django are bug fixes or cleanups.
I believe this trend is not due to an unusual abundance of bugs within the project but rather due to an unsustainable barrier to contributing new features or code improvements.
Contributing to Django requires a significant amount of time, mental energy and effort, which can be discouraging to most. And often, those who have bit the bullet and gone through it once do not go through it a second or third time.

Myself and others have noted, more or less recently, that the process of contributing code to Django, including but not limited to DEPs, is daunting. The words “brutal” and “bureaucratic” have been used by myself and others to describe the process.

If elected, I aim to identify areas that hinder effective code contributions to Django and work towards simplifying the process of contributing code to the project; while keeping the right balance to also protect the time, energy and sanity of the Fellows and the review team.

Dealing with the realities of an aging code-base

As Django approaches its 20th anniversary, it’s essential to acknowledge the aging code-base and technical debt accumulated over time. My goal is to initiate a review process of the existing code-base, carefully evaluating technical debt and identifying areas where improvements can be made without disrupting existing functionality.

Missing batteries and deadlines

One of the core principles of Django has always been its commitment to being a “batteries included” framework. However, in recent years, I’ve noticed that many of these essential features and tools have remained stagnant, without new additions or replacements emerging to support the evolving needs of our community.

Furthermore, the third-party application ecosystem that was once thriving and a jewel of the community, has become harder and harder to navigate and discover. It has also become more time-consuming for developers to have to evaluate a large set of third-party applications to solve a specific need.

As a member of the steering council I would like to work on bringing better visibility and discoverability of those 3rd-party packages and evaluate whether any such package should be brought into Django, either Django core or a spiritual successor to contrib or some other way. Some packages that come to mind are django-csp, django-cors and django-upgrade but this is in no way an exhaustive list.

Feature requests and Roadmap

I plan to use my position to champion “feature requests” – a critical aspect of the council’s role that has never been utilized to this date. Feature requests being also a key part in being able to set a roadmap for Django and provide guidance to potential contributors on where to get started on their journey.

Code ownership and groups

My belief is that, as an unexpected side-effect of the dissolution of the core team and the high barrier to contribution, expertise in specific areas of Django has begun to erode. However, it can be regained through targeted efforts. People involved in the aforementioned code review process would be perfect candidates for these roles, as they’d already have taken a deep dive in thoroughly understanding specific areas of the framework.

Moreover, frequent contributors to an area of the framework are often well-positioned to take on a leading role in “owning” that part of the project. However, this implies recurring contributions to said area. I believe that we need to find ways to incentivize people to become area specialists. Which brings us back to need for lowering the barrier to contribution.

More generally, I think that the project can benefit from those specialized groups, starting with an ORM group.

Closing thoughts

I believe that everything listed here can technically be achieved during the 6.x cycle if I’m elected but… things take time in the Django world. So, I don’t want to over-promise either.

Frank Wiles (he/him) Lawrence, Kansas, USA ¶

View personal statement

The community does a really great job of reaching consensus post-BDFLs but occasionally decisions do need to be made and a direction chosen.

I would like to think my long history with Django and my wide and varied use of it as a consultant gives me a unique perspective not just as a consumer of Django but as a manager/executive helping others to make decisions around how and when to use Django. The decisions that are made impact many people and organizations in sometimes subtle and non-obviously ways. I have a ton of skin in this particular game personally.

Django has been a huge part of what has driven my career and I would be honored to help steer for a bit.

Jake Howard (he/him) UK ¶

View personal statement

For those who don’t know me, I’ve been using Django professionally for almost a decade, spending over half of that focusing on performance and security. I’m also on the Core team for Wagtail CMS.

Django has a great reputation for being “batteries included” and for “perfectionists”, however that reputation is starting to age. Now, people think of Django and clunky, slow, and only useful for building big monoliths. Many developers choose leaner frameworks, and end up having to re-implement Django’s batteries themselves, instead of starting with Django and focusing on building their application.

For Django to progress, it needs to recharge its batteries. The ticket backlog, as well as many developer’s dreams are filled with great feature ideas just looking for a little push in the right direction. Not just the big features like 2FA, Background Tasks or even type hints, but also quality of life improvements to templates, views or even the user model. To achieve this, it requires more than just code – it takes people.

From personal experience, I’ve seen the friction from trying to add even small features to Django, and the mountains to climb to contribute large features. To encourage new contributors, that needs to change – just because it’s the way it’s always been, doesn’t mean it has to continue. Django is a big, complex, highly depended on project, but that doesn’t mean it needs to move at a snail’s pace for everything, nor does every contribution need to be 100% perfect first time. Open source projects are built on passion, which is built up over time but destroyed in seconds. By fostering and enabling that passion, the Django contributor community can flourish.

By the time Django hits 7.0, I’d love to see it more modern, more sustainable, and living up to the ideas we all have for it.

Lily Foote (she/her) United Kingdom ¶

View personal statement

Hi! I’m Lily and I’ve been a contributor to Django for about a decade, mainly working on the ORM. My biggest contributions were adding check constraints and db_default. I’ve also contributed as a mentor within the Django Community. I was a navigator for the pilot of Djangonaut Space (and a backup navigator in following sessions) and a Google Summer of Code mentor for the Composite Primary Keys project. I also joined the triage and review team in 2023.

As a member of the Steering Council I want to enable more people to contribute to the Django codebase and surrounding projects. I think in recent years there has been too much friction in getting a change to Django agreed. I have seen several forum threads fail to gain consensus and I’ve experienced this frustration myself too. I also think the DEP process needs an overhaul to make creating a DEP much easier and significantly less intimidating, making it easier to move from a forum discussion to a decision when otherwise the status quo of doing nothing would win.

I believe a more proactive Steering Council will enable more proposals to move forward and I look forward to being a part of this. I will bring my years of experience of the Django codebase and processes to the Steering Council to provide the technical leadership we need.

Mark Walker Chester, UK ¶

View personal statement

I’m running for the Steering Council so that I might be able to help others. I wouldn’t be in the position I am today without someone very helpful on StackOverflow many years ago who took the time to help me with my first endeavour with python.

Over the years I’ve strived to help others in their journey with python & django, an aim aided by becoming a navigator for djangonaut space and the technical lead of the Django CMS Association. Through all of this I’ve acted as a facilitator to help people both professionally and in open source, something which ties in with discussions going on about the SC being the facilitator for the continued growth of the Django community and framework itself.

Ryan Cheley (he/him) California, US ¶

View personal statement

Hello, I’m Ryan Cheley and I’ve decided to stand for the Django 6.x Steering Council.

My journey with the Django community began in March 2022 when I started contributing pull requests to DjangoPackages. My initial contributions quickly led to deeper involvement, and I was grateful and honored to be asked to be a maintainer following DjangoCon US 2022.

At the DjangoCon US 2022 Sprints, I worked on a SQLite-related bug in Django’s ORM. This proved so valuable that I was was able to give a talk about my experience at DjangoCon US 2023, where I delivered my talk “Contributing to Django or How I learned to stop worrying and just try to fix a bug in the ORM”.

Building on this experience, I returned to DCUS 2024 to present on “Error Culture” where I took a deep dive into the widespread but often overlooked issue of how organizations manage error alerts in technology and programming domains.

My commitment to the Django ecosystem extends beyond code contributions. I’ve served as a Navigator for two sessions of Djangonaut Space, helping guide newcomers through their first contributions to Django. This role has allowed me to give back to the community while developing my mentorship skills.

As one of the admins for Django Commons I work with some amazing folks to help provide an organization that works to improve the maintainer experience.

Additionally, I’ve made various contributions to Django Core, including both code improvements and documentation enhancements.

Throughout my involvement with Django, I’ve consistently shown a commitment to both technical excellence and community building. My experience spans coding, documentation, mentorship, and public speaking, reflecting my holistic approach to contributing to the Django ecosystem.

My focus will be in creating sustainable and inclusive leadership structures. This would, in turn, not only provide help and support for current Django leadership, but also develop and empower future leaders.

The avenues to meet these goals include gathering diverse candidates, providing mentorship opportunities, clearly communicating expectations, and removing financial barriers to participation.

As a member of the Django Steering Council (SC) for the 6.x series, I hope to be able to accomplish the following with my fellow SC Members:

• Establish a governance structure that allows the SC to be successful going forward by:
  • Providing Mentorship for future potential SC members from the Community
  • Reviewing the 18-month requirements for eligibility for SC
  • Communicating the expectations for SC role in Community
  • Working to increase the diversity of those that are willing and able to stand for the SC in the 7.x series and going forward
• Collaborate with Working Groups to
  • ease burden of fellows in a meaningful way via the Fellowship Working Group
  • work with Social Media Working Group to promote new or upcoming features
• Write up weekly / monthly reports, similar to the fellows reports
• Work with the Django Software Foundation(DSF) Board to establish a stipend for 7.x SC members going forward to support their work and allow more diverse participation
• Implement a road map for Django drawing input and inspiration from the Community, specifically from these sources
• Adam G Hill post
• Thibaud Colas Forum post
• Paolo Melichiore post
• Timo Zimmerman post
• Roadmap work from early 2024
• Work on and complete a DEPs to
  • Remove Dead Batteries, similar to Python PEP 594
  • Determine the long term viability of Trac, research alternatives, and come up with triggers that would lead to a migration if/when necessary.
• Review and approve or reject all current draft DEPs

The Django community has done so much for me. I’m hoping that with my involvement on the Steering Council I’m able to work to do my part to ensure the long term success and viability of the Django community and leave it in a better place than I found it.

Ryan Hiebert ¶

View personal statement

I’ve worked professionally with Django and Python for the past 13 years. I’ve mostly lurked on the mailing lists and forums, but I have been around maintaining some smaller projects, most notably among them being django-safemigrate, aldjemy, hirefire, tox-travis, and backports.csv. I had the privilege of giving a talk at DjangoCon 2024 about Passkeys and Django.

Django has excelled in three areas. We take a batteries-included approach that empowers new developers, we have strong community governance, and we are conservative about the changes we make to maintain stability. These have been critical to Django’s success, but the combination has made it challenging for Django to keep up with the changing technology landscape.

To allow Django meet the changing needs of our users both now and for the future, we need to think carefully about the important parts of each of those priorities, and tune the tension between them to allow the Django community to thrive.

Django should transition away from including batteries directly, and toward enabling add-on batteries. We should favor proposals that empower interoperability between a variety of third party batteries (e.g. the Background Workers DEP), and disfavor proposals that wish to bless a particular solution in core, no matter how wonderful the solution is (e.g. HTMX).

Django should be encouraging work that aims to expose third-party packages in our official documentation and communication channels, especially those that implement core interoperability interfaces. This will make room for new ideas and more approaches.

Django should seek to make a clear boundary around a smaller core where our preference for stability is the more important factor in empowering our diverse community.

Django should favor changes that bring it into alignment with Python community standards. It should favor this even over the “one way to do it” principle. By encouraging using Python standards, Django will better meet its responsibility as an entryway for new Python developers to be better equipped to grow in Python generally. For example, Django could encourage using appropriate standards in the pyproject.toml over extending Django-centric idioms like adding to the settings.py.

Django should encourage proposals that seek to lower the footprint of a new project. Projects like Nanodjango should inspire us to make starting with Django trivial and minimal, and make each step a newcomer might take to grow be as small as possible, so they only need to meet only the challenges required by the work they are needing to do.

Django should favor proposals to begin to include correct types, even to the point of carefully making any necessary breaking changes to help make the types correct and usable.

The DSF should, when financially feasible, fund non-core batteries that can empower the community. It may be appropriate for the DSF to make some requirements about the necessary governance required of these projects in order to qualify for funding.

The Steering Council should strongly consider recommending changes to its decision making process to make it more feasible to make and reverse decisions as it faces new challenges. Stability is maintained by active, careful, and persistent effort, not indecision.

By making decisions with these principles in mind, we can help our community maintain the root of our goals: A stable community-governed base, empowering a diverse community that excels in the fast-paced world of web development, and being a gateway for new developers.

Sage Abdullah (he/him) Jakarta, Indonesia / Bristol, UK ¶

View personal statement

Django’s best strength is that it’s built by its community – but that’s also a weakness. The reality of a project of Django’s scale that’s been around for so long, and has so many contributors, is that making substantial changes becomes increasingly difficult. You may have heard talks about how daunting it can be to get a PR merged into Django, or how hard it is to get a feature accepted.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

In 2019, I added the cross-database JSONField as part of Google Summer of Code (GSoC). Many of Django’s big features have come from GSoC, and some of the contributors stay involved in the community – this year, I became a GSoC mentor for Django. As a core team member of Wagtail (a Django-based CMS), I have seen the same pattern with our participations in such outreach programs. Django can do a lot more in making community contributions more accessible and sustainable, and I think I can help.

Here’s what I think the steering council should do:

1. Organize a living roadmap for Django. Rather than waiting for a DEP to be proposed and acted on, the steering council should actively help the community in highlighting issues and feature requests that are high priority or most wanted.
2. Maximize the potential of mentorship programs. With a roadmap in place, the steering council could help find mentors and contributors who can take on the work. Programs like GSoC, Djangonaut Space, or other initiatives can flourish if we connect the ideas with the right people.
3. Communicate and document progress. To allow continuous feedback and improvement, the steering council should engage with the community and document the progress of their activities, as well as the current state of Django.

Django is at a turning point. It’s time for the steering council to take a more active role with the community in shaping the future of Django, and I believe I can help make that happen.

Tim Graham Philadelphia, PA USA ¶

View personal statement

My deep knowledge of Django comes as a user and documentation contributor since 2009, and from working on Django as a Django Fellow from 2014-2019.

Since 2019, I’ve been contracted to develop and maintain several third-party database backends for Django, including CockroachDB, Google Cloud Spanner, Snowflake, and MongoDB.

I remain active on the Django Internals section of the forum and the Django ticket tracker, as well as writing and reviewing patches for Django.

Tim Schilling (he/him) United States ¶

View personal statement

If elected to the Steering Council, I would strive to grow our contributor base and improve the support structures in the community. I’d like to do the work to make everyone else’s lives easier.

I expect this to move slowly, but I do expect this to move. The three most important goals to me are the following:

1. Meet as the Steering Council regularly and post a record of the discussion and actions.

2. To check in on our various teams and individuals. For example, the Translations team isn’t a formal team yet, but it should be.

3. To encourage and support feature development based on community recommendations.

I will need help with this role in understanding the context and history of technical decisions in Django. The community can support me and others like me by continuing to engage in those technical discussions on the forum. Having folks provide context and clarity will be invaluable.

If elected, I would step down from the DEFNA board and step away as a DjangoCon US organizer. That would leave me being involved with the Steering Council, Djangonaut Space, and Django Commons, all of which overlap in my goal to foster community growth.

I expect there to be technical change in the next term of the Steering Council. However, my particular focus will be on the people. By engaging the community more and encouraging new people, we can strengthen the foundation of our community to support our ambitious goals of the future.

More detailed opinions can be found at: Steering Council 6.x Thoughts · Better Simple.
A list of my involvements can be found at: Tim Schilling · Better Simple

Your move now

That’s it, you’ve read it all 🌈! Be sure to vote if you’re eligible, by using the link shared over email. To support the future of Django, donate to the Django Software Foundation on our website or via GitHub Sponsors.

Another month means another fresh batch of excellent themes for WordPress.com. Let’s look at some of the latest additions to the WordPress.com themes gallery, with great options for content creators, small businesses, event organizers, and personal sites. Preview each one below (and maybe try taking one for a spin).

CoachAva

• Designed for: Professional coaches
• Also great for: Consultants, thought leaders, speakers, and content creators with paid course offerings

With a clean, single-hued design, minimal photography, and approachable fonts, CoachAva is built for professional coaches looking to highlight their core offerings and showcase their expertise. 

Whether you’re a seasoned executive coach, a life coach, or a subject matter expert looking to sell digital or in-person services, CoachAva can help you establish trust with potential clients by putting your thought leadership front and center. Blocks make it easy to share blog posts, podcasts, and/or customer testimonials on your homepage. The flexible design makes it easy to define, package, and showcase your different offerings, connecting clients to the perfect programs.

Explore CoachAva

CastCore

• Best for: Podcasters
• Also great for: Bloggers, serial content creators, news sites with limited photography

Ideal for podcasters building their first site, Castcore features bold, attention-grabbing titles and a minimalist aesthetic that keeps your listeners focused on what matters most – your content. 

With a simple homepage design, this template makes it easy for listeners to scroll through your recent content to find the right episode. Castcore is a great option for podcasters who want to build their subscriber base. The Podcast Player block makes it super easy to create an embedded mini-player for your episodes: simply copy your podcast’s RSS URL to engage listeners right on your page. Choose a grey and black color combo for a classic design or go young and bold with bright yellow.

Explore CastCore

CoachBen

• Designed for: Professional coaches
• Also great for: Thought leaders, speakers, and content creators with paid course offerings

CoachBen’s dark theme with bright accents offers a bold and professional design that perfectly reflects a coach at the top of their game. Striking and to the point, this theme allows professional coaches to quickly articulate their value proposition and define their services. 

With pre-designed blocks for displaying company logos of past clients, a calendar of speaking events, and a blog subscription, there are plenty of ways to show potential clients your expertise and experience. When they’re ready to dig in, they can learn more about specific offerings on your courses page or reach out to schedule a call.

Explore CoachBen

GreenSeed

• Designed for: Flexible visual sites
• Also Great for: Brick and mortars, Restaurants, Personal care providers, Digital portfolios, visual artists, photographers

Greenseed is a beautifully simple, highly adaptable theme that makes it easy for businesses to take their brick-and-mortar brands online. Designed with full-site editing in mind, Greenseed can be customized to match any brand style, but its open spaces and bold visuals make it a particularly great choice for businesses looking to establish a streamlined online presence that embraces custom photography. 

This minimal, approachable layout gives your photos space to breathe while providing key business information like address, phone number, and store hours. Link to your reservations page or provide visitors with a contact form to make it easy for potential customers to make an appointment or plan a visit.

Explore Greenseed

Aether

• Designed for: Small jewelry or accessory brands
• Also great for: Eco-conscious consumer brands, wedding suppliers 

Like the jewelry and accessory brands it was built for, Aether embodies modern elegance. With delicate fonts and natural-toned color palettes, this product-focused template offers a tasteful design that allows artisan accessories and jewelry to truly sparkle. 

With social media integrations and the ability to highlight products on your homepage, Aether creates a flexible hub for your digital brand. You can allow your customers to purchase products directly through WordPress’s e-commerce plugins or you can link your website to an existing storefront. With Aether, you can be sure your customers will understand your brand’s commitment to quality and design.

Explore Aether

Miko

• Designed for: Personal professional website
• Also great for: Writer portfolios, speakers, brand consultants

With a bold split-page design and minimalist elements, Miko keeps your brand center stage. Best for individuals, creators, or service providers who want to make a lasting visual impact, this template allows visitors to navigate through all of the pages of your site on the left side without ever navigating away from the image and title anchored on the right. 

Featuring a variety of hyper-modern font options and cool color combos, Miko can lean sweet and delicate or bold and artistic, effortlessly complimenting a huge range of personal and professional website identities. Regardless of the style you choose, Miko is the perfect theme for anyone who wants to present themselves as a modern, polished professional with an eye for design.

Explore Miko

Conference

The best way to market your upcoming conference is with a sleek custom website. Conference is a flexible template that helps conference planners create a credible online presence. 

The Conference template can support both marketing and event logistics: You can highlight your speakers, sponsors, and conference news to draw in new attendees via the signup form. Once attendees register, the site acts as a home base for key information, providing pages for the conference location, daily schedules, and lists of attendees to help your participants connect in advance. Whether you are hosting a multi-day affair or an intimate workshop, Conference can scale to meet the needs of your event.

Explore Conference

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Ready to give your site a makeover? You can explore these themes by clicking the “Demo” button on each theme page. Whether you’re starting a coaching business or looking to improve your professional online presence, you might just find the perfect jumping-off point for your future website.

Most premium themes are available to use at no extra charge for customers on the Personal plan or above. Partner themes are third-party products that can be purchased for $99/year each on the Business or Commerce plans, so if you haven’t found what you’re looking for today, there are plenty of alternatives available.

You can explore all of our themes by navigating to the “Themes” page, which is under “Appearance” in the left-side menu of your WordPress.com dashboard, or by clicking the button below:

In accordance with our security release policy, the Django team
is issuing releases for
Django 5.1.4,
Django 5.0.10, and
Django 4.2.17.
These releases address the security issues detailed below. We encourage all
users of Django to upgrade as soon as possible.

And just like that, 2024 is almost over! If your finances allow, donate to the Django Software Foundation to support the long-term future of Django.

Donate to support Django

Other ways to give

• Official merchandise store – Buy official t-shirts, accessories, and more to support Django.
• Sponsor Django via GitHub Sponsors.
• Benevity Workplace Giving Program – If your employer participates, you can make donations to the DSF via payroll deduction.

Why give to the Django Software Foundation?

Our main focus is direct support of Django’s developers. This means:

• Organizing and funding development sprints so that Django’s developers can meet in person.
• Helping key developers attend these sprints and other community events by covering travel expenses to official Django events.
• Providing financial assistance to community development and outreach projects such as Django Girls.
• Providing financial assistance to individuals so they can attend major conferences and events.
• Funding the Django Fellowship program, which provides full-time staff to perform community management tasks in the Django community.

Still curious? See our Frequently Asked Questions about donations.

Spam bots and denial-of-service attacks are a reality for many website owners. Depending on timing and scale, they can be an annoyance or a detriment to your business’s bottom line. Services like Cloudflare, Fastly, and Vercel are popular choices for mitigating these attacks with sophisticated techniques beyond the firewall rules many hosts (WordPress.com included) employ to examine and potentially block incoming traffic.

WordPress.com’s defensive mode introduces similar, sophisticated DDoS protection that further enhances your site’s security. It works by issuing proof-of-work challenges to browsers visiting the site. Legitimate users will briefly see a challenge page while their browser completes the work before accessing the site. The feature is powered by our global edge network, but it can still be enabled independently of our global edge cache feature.

What is defensive mode?

If you notice an inordinate amount of traffic to your website that is slowing it down, this setting filters spam traffic by requesting that they complete a proof-of-work challenge. When visitors come to your website for the first time, they will see the following screen:

This proof-of-work challenge page has a unique random puzzle embedded in it, along with JavaScript that can solve the puzzle. The puzzles are designed to take a typical CPU a few seconds to solve, and they deter botnets, which are not able to run the scripts to solve the puzzles.

How to enable it

This system protects all sites hosted on WordPress.com. Sites on Free, Personal, and Premium hosting plans are managed for you. For sites on Business or Commerce hosting plans, this setting can also be managed manually from your site’s Hosting Dashboard.

Here’s how to enable it:

1. Visit your Sites page by clicking on the WordPress logo in the upper left corner of your dashboard.
2. Click on your site title.
3. Click on the “Server Settings” tab on the site overview page.
4. Scroll down to the Defensive mode section.
5. Select a duration and click the “Enable defensive mode” button

Note that WordPress.com staff may proactively enable defensive mode on your behalf, regardless of what hosting plan you have, if your site is attacked.

Get it all on WordPress.com

Many hosts charge extra for capabilities like this, or they require integration with a third-party provider. On WordPress.com, defensive mode is included on every plan and can be managed manually on Business and Commerce plans.

This is just one more reason why WordPress.com stands out as the premier managed host for WordPress sites. With staging sites, SSH and WP-CLI access, or GitHub deployments, we’re always working on new tools to make WordPress.com an essential component of your development workflow. 

What other features would you like to see on WordPress.com? How can we make WordPress.com an even more powerful place to build a website? Let us know in the comments below.

Having a well-designed, functional website helps you reach a broader audience, build credibility, and connect meaningfully with customers or followers. In today’s digital-first world, your website is often the first impression you make, and right now is the time to make it count.

Why now? Black Friday savings, of course!

Until December 2nd, save 25% on the first year of any new annual hosting plan from WordPress.com.

Why having a reliable website matters 

There are many reasons a website is important. Let’s take a look at three that impact the relationship you can build with your audience:

Trust and credibility 

We live in an “informed consumer” society and having a website allows you to share important details about your business or products. Your customers look for a website to help them form opinions, understand your offerings, and ultimately make a purchase decision. If you don’t have one, it can raise questions of legitimacy and cause your customers to look elsewhere for the products or services they require. 

User experience 

Your WordPress.com website gives you full control over how people experience your brand. A well-organized site not only sets the right tone but also makes it easy for visitors to find what they need, continuing to build trust and showing your commitment to a positive experience.

Accessibility and convenience

The internet never closes or sleeps. With a website, your audience has 24/7 access to everything you offer—any time, from anywhere. 

Putting your audience first is essential to your success. 

This is why our Black Friday sale is about so much more than the 25% savings you’ll receive on the first year of any new, annual hosting plan. 

Why WordPress.com?

Choosing WordPress.com as your website host means choosing a team committed to your success. Our self-help resources, AI Assistant, and Happiness Engineers are all focused on helping you be successful with your website. 

Our managed WordPress hosting also offers unmetered visitors, unmatched speed, and unstoppable security for one low price. With WordPress.com, you always have what you need to get online (and stay online) so you can grow your audience.

And if you take advantage of our Black Friday sale before December 2nd, you get even more with your purchase:

• 25% off any new, annual hosting plan
• A free custom domain for one year
• Expert support from our Happiness Engineers

What’s possible on WordPress.com

WordPress is a powerful and flexible website building platform, and WordPress.com gives you that functionality alongside powerful, secure, and scalable managed hosting. Whether you want a simple blog, a complex eCommerce store, or anything in-between, WordPress.com is the right hosting platform for you. 

Check out what’s possible on WordPress.com in our demo site showcase:

How to unlock powerful WordPress hosting

Ready to get started with WordPress.com? We thought you might be.

Click the button below to learn more about each of our plans, choose the right plan for you, and purchase your discounted hosting plan. Your 25% off discount will apply automatically at checkout.

Frequently asked questions

What if I change my mind, can I get a refund?

Absolutely. We offer a risk-free, 14-day money back guarantee on annual plans. 

Can I use a domain I already own?

For sure. You can transfer or connect your domain and we can guide you on the steps as needed. 

Can I migrate an existing site?

Absolutely. Whether your existing site is built with WordPress or another platform, we have guides available to walk you through the process. We also offer free migrations of WordPress sites. And yes, our Black Friday offer applies to site migrations too.

Is this offer available on renewals or upgrades?

No, this discount only applies to new annual plans. Current users can, however, use this offer if they’re adding a new plan or site.

How do renewals work?

Our Black Friday offer gives you a 25% discount off the first year of your hosting plan. Our annual plans automatically renew 30-days prior to your expiry date at the regular full price. 

Sign up today to take advantage of powerful managed WordPress hosting from WordPress.com and save 25% on the annual plan of your choice.

This offer expires on December 2nd, 2024.

Following our announcement of the 6.x Steering Council elections, today we open candidate registrations. Registrations will be open until December 4 2024 at 23:59 Anywhere on Earth.

Register as a Steering Council candidate

Eligibility

Candidate eligibility requirements are defined in DEP 12: The Steering Council. To be qualified for elections, we require both of the following:

• A history of substantive contributions to Django or the Django ecosystem. This history must begin at least 18 months prior to the individual’s candidacy for the Steering Council, and include substantive contributions in at least two of these bullet points:
  • Code contributions on Django projects or major third-party packages in the Django ecosystem
  • Reviewing pull requests and/or triaging Django project tickets
  • Documentation, tutorials or blog posts
  • Discussions about Django on the django-developers mailing list or the Django Forum
  • Running Django-related events or user groups
• A history of engagement with the direction and future of Django. This does not need to be recent, but candidates who have not engaged in the past three years must still demonstrate an understanding of Django’s changes and direction within those three years.

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If you have questions about the election please contact [email protected] or ask on the Django forum.

When you’re building a WordPress website, there are some essential elements you likely want to include, such as a contact form. However, limiting your use of forms to your contact page is a missed opportunity to increase leads, boost engagement, and enhance the overall user experience (UX) on your site.

There are many ways you can use forms on your WordPress site beyond providing visitors with a contact method. From collecting user feedback to generating leads and expanding your mailing list, forms offer dynamic and convenient ways to drive conversions.

In this post, we’ll start by discussing the role forms play in WordPress and how they can help you collect valuable information. Then we’ll introduce you to eight creative ways to use them on your site with some tips for making them effective.

Note: We’ve saved the most surprising ways for the end, so keep reading!

An introduction to using forms on your WordPress site

When most people think of website forms, they likely think of contact forms. These simple, embedded features let your visitors enter basic information to get in touch with you:

However, the use of online forms extends far beyond contact points. These documents allow you to easily and conveniently collect a wide variety of information from users and visitors directly from your website. You can also use them across other channels such as email and social media.

Website forms are beneficial because they provide straightforward ways of collecting lead-generating data that you can store and use in the future. Therefore, forms are essential tools to help you with marketing, sales, and promotions. 

Another benefit of using forms on your WordPress site is that creating and embedding them is quick and easy. There are several plugins you can use to build forms if you require different functionality. 

If you’re looking to create a standard form, you can also use the Form block on WordPress.com, which is powered by the Jetpack plugin (which is included on every WordPress.com website):

Six creative examples of forms you can create right now

Now that we understand more about the role forms play in websites, let’s look at their different use cases. Below are six creative ways to use forms on your WordPress site, aside from your contact page. 

1. Run fun contests and giveaways

Running contests and giveaways on your website is an excellent way to boost engagement. Giving away freebies can help promote your brand and spread awareness about specific products and offerings. 

To make it as simple as possible for your customers to enter the contest, you can use an embedded or pop-up form to collect their information, such as names and email addresses:

This form provides you with customer contact information that you can use for future campaigns. People will be more likely to hand over their details when they know they have a chance to win something in return. 

2. Register users for memberships and events

If you run a membership site or host events, you can use website forms to make user registration a breeze:

You can also utilize them for event registration, such as an upcoming webinar. Like a giveaway, this can be an effective lead-generation technique because you’re giving users something in exchange for their contact details.

3. Conduct user and reader surveys

Curious to know what your readers or customers think about a topic? Use a questionnaire and find out! You can easily create a poll or survey using Crowdsignal, our service for creating surveys and polls. Get started with a free account and learn how to set it up:

You can also effortlessly capture insights from your audience by creating a simple poll using the Poll block:

4. Let users sign up for your mailing list

Email marketing is a powerful way to grow your audience, expand brand awareness, and increase engagement. However, figuring out how to grow your subscriber list can be challenging.

One way to expand your subscriber list is by embedding a newsletter signup form on your website. It lets you easily capture the email addresses of your visitors:

One of the benefits of signup forms is that there are so many different areas you can place them. For example, you can insert them in the header or footer of your website. This placement ensures the forms are easily accessible no matter which pages your users are on. 

You can also use forms as exit-intent pop-ups. For example, as visitors are about to leave your website, you can have the signup form appear with a convenient Call To Action (CTA).

5. Enable applicants to apply for jobs

Recruiting and hiring new talent is a staple in any successful business. However, the application process you use can influence the number of applicants and the quality.

Today, many job seekers want a quick and convenient way to apply to jobs they’re interested in. To make the process as convenient as possible for your prospects, you can add a form on your website that enables potential employees to apply to open positions:

You can embed these forms directly below the job descriptions. Plus, you can enable applicants to attach documents, such as resumes and cover letters. This feature eliminates the number of steps users must complete to submit their information for different positions. 

Using a form also helps you keep all the necessary information of applicants in one place for easy access. This can streamline the vetting process and, ultimately, help you find the most qualified applicants.

6. “Name It!” campaign – involve users in product decisions

Raise your hand if you’ve ever eagerly suggested a name for someone’s new puppy, or your local zoo’s newborn giraffe. Users love feeling useful, so give them a fun job. Create a form that allows visitors to suggest a name for your latest product or mascot. An entire viral campaign can sometimes emerge simply from a “name this” campaign. 

A few simple tips for creating effective website forms

Once you decide to create a particular type of website form, the next step is to build it. As we mentioned earlier, there are various tools you can use to do so. 

However, regardless of which plugin you use to create your forms, there are some essential tips to keep in mind to ensure effectiveness. For example:

• Keep things simple. Only include the necessary information to keep the forms as brief and concise as possible. Otherwise, you risk overwhelming users and reducing the likelihood of completing the form.
• Minimize the amount of typing involved. In most cases, your customers won’t want to spend considerable time filling out lengthy responses to form questions. Therefore, it’s a smart idea to include multiple choice answers when possible (and where applicable).
• Provide clear instructions. To make your forms as effective as possible, it’s vital to ensure that users understand what you’re asking and how to complete the fields correctly. You might consider adding example answers to demonstrate the type of responses you’re looking for.

Best practices for creating website forms vary based on the type you’re building and what your end goal is. However, it’s crucial to prioritize the UX to make the data collection process quick and effortless for your customers. 

What will you do with forms next?

Most website owners understand the importance of including contact forms on their websites. However, many overlook the various ways that forms can help drive conversions and generate leads.

As discussed in this post, you can use plenty of strategies to get creative with your forms. For example, you can use them to register users for events, conduct user surveys, let visitors sign up for your mailing list, and offer a seamless way to apply for jobs. 

Ready to build a site of your own? Get started with WordPress.com now.

This year it was hard to decide, and we wanted to also show who else got nominated, because they also deserve recognition, so it took a bit longer than we expected.

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The Django Software Foundation Board is pleased to announce that the 2024 Malcolm Tredinnick Memorial Prize has been awarded to Rachell Calhoun.

Rachell Calhoun is an influential figure within the Django community, well known for being cheerful and always willing to help others. She consistently empowers folks behind the scenes.

Rachell got her start in the Django community through a Django Girls Seoul event. Being an educator, she started organizing Django Girls Seoul events. Her contributions to Django Girls Seoul and Django Girls Grand Rapids exemplify her commitment to sharing knowledge, spreading Django and lifting others up. Rachell is now a trustee for Django Girls +, contributing to its mission of helping women and other underrepresented groups around the world learn programming with Django.

In 2022, Rachell co-founded Djangonaut Space, an initiative designed to support new contributors to the Django ecosystem, encouraging leadership and growth. Rachell’s willingness to help people achieve their goals and celebrate their achievements has been imprinted in Djangonaut Space’s culture. Rachell and Djangonaut Space have done a stellar job on helping people become contributors and Django community members.

Her commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion extends beyond her organizational work; she has volunteered at multiple DjangoCon US events, bringing her welcoming and inclusive spirit to the community. A long-time volunteer and speaker at DjangoCon US and DjangoCon Europe from 2016 to 2024, she has shared her expertise and insights on various topics related to Django and web development.

Rachell has contributed to Django for many years, she has been instrumental in creating spaces where people of all backgrounds can thrive, making her a beloved and respected member of the global Django ecosystem.

Some quotes from the thirteen people who nominated Rachell had this to say about her:

Rachell advocates for others constantly through sponsorship, inclusivity, and connection. She is extremely empathic and seeks to not only welcome others in, but to actively bring them into the group.

She has been one of the core members of Djangonaut Space which has done a lot for bringing new contributors into the Django community. This program has done a lot to excite and energize the Django community and Rachell is one of the major reasons why. —
Throughout her career she’s been involved in Django Girls starting about a decade ago in South Korea. She was a major organizer of the Grand Rapids, MI branch, before moving into the trustee role she occupies now.

Rachell is one of my favorite people and she’s been doing an excellent job at growing Django and helping others feel more welcome here. Rachell is an excellent choice for the Malcolm Tredinnick 2024 award!

— Tim Shilling

Rachell is an extremely skillful leader who is always nurturing newcomers into leaders. She has been pivotal to my experience with the Djangonaut Space Program.
I started out as a nervous Djangonaut who didn’t schedule my 1:1s until Rachell checked in with me and made sure I knew the program was a safe space to discuss anything.

When I joined the program organizers as a Navigator Coordinator, I was initially much more of a follower. Rachell knew to step back while continuing to provide her support, so I could step into the leadership role and get my job done.

Rachell shows people that she believes in them. She does this in a friendly, gentle, and encouraging manner. She never forces anyone to make decisions that they don’t feel comfortable with. The community is really lucky to have Rachell.

— Lilian

Rachell Calhoun, one of the organizers and founders of Djangonaut Space, has been an open, supportive, and educational help on my Django journey. Her contributions to the Djangonaut Space program are invaluable—a program I hold quite dearly as a cornerstone of my technical interactions and growth.

Rachell’s ideals of nurturing and guiding have shone through the program, for which I am grateful. Encouraging wonderful conversations, organizing and fostering mentorship, and being a great person!

I believe Rachell is an embodiment of the Malcolm Tredinnick spirit and am confident that should she win the prize, she would go on to create more impact for the Django community and the world at large.

— Emmanuel Katchy

Other nominations for this year included:

Anna Makarudze, Fundraising Coordinator at Django Girls+ Foundation, chair of the first DjangoCon Africa, previously served the DSF board as president.

Benjamin Balder Bach, chair of the DSF social media working group, organizer of Django Day Copenhagen for many years.

Black Python Devs, community founded by Jay Miller, to increase diversity and inclusion of typically underrepresented people.

Bhuvnesh Sharma, co-chair of the DSF social media working group, and co-founded and organized Django India.

Carlton Gibson, previously a Django fellow, co-host of Django Chat, volunteers in DjangoCon Europe and provides useful advice in forum and discord.

Christoph Bulter, active helper of the official and unofficial Django Discord.

Django Girls+, a non-profit organization and a community that empowers and helps women to organize free, one-day programming workshops by providing tools, resources and support.

Django Discord moderators and helpers, which are moderating the discord and provide help to keep the place welcoming and inclusive to everyone.

Daniel Moran, active contributor in various open-source projects, including django-tasks-scheduler. He is an administrator of the Django Commons organization.

Ester Beltrami, PyCon Italia and Django London organizer, is also a volunteer and a speaker in events such as EuroPython or DjangoCon Europe.

Felipe de Morais, co-founder of AfroPython, participant of Djangonaut Space program, organized and advised multiple Django Girls workshops across Brazil and Chile.

Jake Howard, speaker and contributor to Django, known for his work around background tasks.

Matt Westcott, frequent speaker and lead the development of Wagtail.

Russel Keith-Magee, python core contributor and previously Django core contributor and also served in the DSF board as President.

Ryan Cheley, django contributor and mentor (navigator) in Djangonaut Space program.

Simon Charette, long-time django contributor, previously member of the Django 5.x steering council

Sheena O’Connell, frequent speaker and DjangoCon Africa organizer.

Tom Carrick, Django Accessibility team creator and member, django contributor for many years and mentor (navigator) in Djangonaut Space program.

Tim Schilling, DEFNA secretary, DjangoCon Us organizer and co-founder of Djangonaut Space.

Will Vincent, former board member of the DSF, co-host of Django Chat and co-writer of Django News.

Each year we receive many nominations, and it is always hard to pick the winner. This year, as always, we received many nominations for the Malcolm Tredinnick Memorial Prize with some being nominated multiple times. Some have been nominated in multiple years. If your nominee didn’t make it this year, you can always nominate them again next year.

Malcolm would be very proud of the legacy he has fostered in our community!

Congratulations Rachell on the well-deserved honor!

The DjangoCon Europe 2026 call for organizers is now over. We’re elated to report we received three viable proposals, a clear improvement over recent years.

We’ll let the successful team decide when and how to make their announcement, but in the meantime – thank you to everyone who took part in this process ❤️ We’re elated to have such a strong community in Europe. And for now, look forward to DjangoCon Europe 2025 in Dublin, Ireland! 🍀

What about 2027?

We’re not ready to plan that yet, but if you’re interested in organizing – take a moment to add your name and email to our DjangoCon Europe 2027 expression of interest form. We’ll make sure to reach out once the time is right.