dpaste isn't django 2.0 ready yet.

dpaste/wsgi.py

@@ -8,14 +8,7 @@ https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/howto/deployment/wsgi/
 """
 
 import os
-# If a 'settings_local' file is present, use it
-try:
-    from dpaste.settings import local
-    settings_module = "dpaste.settings.local"
-except ImportError:
-    settings_module = "dpaste.settings"
-
-os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", settings_module)
+os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "dpaste.settings.local")
 
 from django.core.wsgi import get_wsgi_application
 application = get_wsgi_application()

manage.py

@@ -3,13 +3,20 @@ import os
 import sys
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
-    # If a 'settings_local' file is present, use it
+    os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "dpaste.settings.local")
     try:
-        from dpaste.settings import local
-        settings_module = "dpaste.settings.local"
+        from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line
     except ImportError:
-        settings_module = "dpaste.settings"
-
-    os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", settings_module)
-    from django.core.management import execute_from_command_line
+        # The above import may fail for some other reason. Ensure that the
+        # issue is really that Django is missing to avoid masking other
+        # exceptions on Python 2.
+        try:
+            import django
+        except ImportError:
+            raise ImportError(
+                "Couldn't import Django. Are you sure it's installed and "
+                "available on your PYTHONPATH environment variable? Did you "
+                "forget to activate a virtual environment?"
+            )
+        raise
     execute_from_command_line(sys.argv)

setup.py

@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ setup(
     },
     include_package_data=True,
     install_requires=[
-        'django>=1.8',
+        'django>=1.8,<2.0',
         'pygments>=1.6',
         'django-markup>=1.0',
     ],