content/news/2017-02-08-django-and-freenode.md

   1 ---
   2 Title: Django and freenode
   3 Author: Tim Graham (timograham)
   4 Date: 2017-02-08T20:00+01:00
   5 Slug: django-and-freenode
   6 ---
   7
   8 For nearly twelve years, the [Django Project](https://www.djangoproject.com/)
   9 has endeavoured to improve "the web framework for perfectionists with
  10 deadlines." Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourage
  11 rapid development and clean, pragmatic design. Built by experienced
  12 developers, it takes care of much of the hassle of Web development,
  13 so you can focus on writing your app without needing to reinvent the
  14 wheel. Of course, it's free and open source.
  15
  16 I’m contracted full-time by the Django Software Foundation
  17 [as a fellow](https://www.djangoproject.com/fundraising/#fellowship-program),
  18 to manage some of the administrative and community management tasks of
  19 the Django project to support rapid development of Django itself. The
  20 fellowship program has a major positive impact on how Django is
  21 developed and maintained, and I’d encourage any large open source
  22 project to consider a similar program.
  23
  24 The Django community is vibrant across the globe, with many annual
  25 conferences and local meetups. Sprints are often held at these events,
  26 but Django’s development is mainly coordinated remotely, so good
  27 communication tools are important to us.
  28
  29 ## How Django uses freenode
  30 Our community support channels include #django and the
  31 [django-users mailing list](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/django-users).
  32 Discussions about the development of Django itself are held
  33 in #django-dev and the
  34 [django-developers mailing list](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/django-developers). #django-sprint
  35 provides a chat for sprint participants, including those who want to
  36 join remotely. Finally, private discussions of the Django team are held
  37 in the #django-core channel.
  38
  39 To keep our community safe and welcoming, Django's
  40 [Code of Conduct](https://www.djangoproject.com/conduct/) applies to
  41 all spaces managed by the Django project or Django Software Foundation
  42 (DSF). This includes IRC, the mailing lists, the issue tracker, DSF
  43 events, and any other forums created by the project team which the
  44 community uses for communication.
  45
  46 ## What's next for Django?
  47 We're currently working toward releasing Django 1.11, our next
  48 long-term support release, in April. This will be the last version of
  49 Django to support Python 2.7. Meanwhile, Django's master development
  50 branch is targeting Django 2.0 and will support Python 3 only. More
  51 details are available on [our roadmap](https://www.djangoproject.com/download/#supported-versions).
  52
  53 If you’re interested in learning more about Django,
  54 [try our tutorial](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/intro/tutorial01/).
  55 If you’re already a Django user and want to start contributing, our
  56 documentation is extensive, including
  57 [advice for new contributors](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/internals/contributing/new-contributors/).