As a beginner familiar with basic Python syntax, how can I learn how to create a simple Q&A site using Python?

If you just want to build a Q&A website, and you want it to be in Python so that you can customize it yourself, then you should simply download OSQA: http://www.osqa.net/ On the other hand if you want to learn how to create a Q&A website using Python, I would suggest the following as a starter kit: - Use Django. There are simpler web development frameworks in Python, but Django is very well documented, and it has really well written code. Lots of good examples for a learner to learn from. There are more powerful/flexible frameworks also out there, but those I would not recommend for first-timers. - First go through the Django tutorial. At the end of it, you should have a pretty good idea of how you might be able to create a Q&A site. - Use Twitter Bootstrap. I haven't used this myself, but I hear good things about it. It makes the front-end pretty looking, responsive, and easy to develop. - If you find yourself getting stuck on some specific aspects of what is the best way to implement some Q&A feature in your site, you could read the source code of OSQA, or ask your specific question on Quora.

Since you have already learnt basics of python, I would recommend giving a glance at http://flask.pocoo.org/ first. It is small (you could deploy a single file and it still runs, with an option to extend by adding plugins for things you want) and much more flexible.They indeed have good documentation and you would not find things being done magically for you all the time. If you do not like this safely move to Django (with a bit more to learn there of course). For the UI part, yes http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/ seems to be your best bet to make something not ugly unless you are a designer ninja yourself. It's easy to use and looks good. You might need to use a javascript framework maybe for things like voting on answers :) There are several options here, though JQuery http://jquery.com/ could help you. Finally a place to deploy your app. Free quota of AppFog (http://www.appfog.com/) will work for any option you choose (Flask/Django). Another alternative would be Google App Engine with webapp2 framework but it would make your app non-portable to some other platform provider without changes.