Dynamically Created Top Articles List in Django?
Premature optimization, first try the db way and then see if it really is too database sensitive. Any decent database has so good caches it probably won't matter very much. And even if it is a problem, take a look at the other db/cache suggestions here. 
It is most likely by the way is that you will have many more intensive db queries with each view than a simple view update.
I'm creating a Django-powered site for my newspaper-ish site. The least obvious and common-sense task that I have come across in getting the site together is how best to generate a "top articles" list for the sidebar of the page. 
The first thing that came to mind was some sort of database column that is updated (based on what?) with every view. That seems (to my instincts) ridiculously database intensive and impractical and thus I think I'd like to find another solution.
Thanks all.