Good review, especially of django. However, one tiny gripe: it's actually really easy to use an arbitrary templating system with django. Since HttpResponse objects just take strings, you don't have to use render_to_response(..), you could easily generate your html string from mako and pass that to a hand created HttpResponse (or write your own render_to_response).
I also don't think it would be very difficult to amend the url dispatch either.
I am sorry, but I didnt realize that this has been posted earlier. Anyway, I hope newer folks find this of value.
Perhaps I can suggest a 'feature' for news.ycombinator.com in a separate thread.
'... I am sorry, but I didnt realize that this has been posted earlier. ...'
Shouldn't have to appologise for crappy software. We have no search facilities so things like this are bound to happen. You could try looking for the search page (somewhere) but it's spidering is always behind the posting. The only alternative is for a live search to be added to the page.
I also don't think it would be very difficult to amend the url dispatch either.