Also I find that some of these 3d party apps use a notation like >= Django 1.X but that's not really true because of backwards incompatibility. A clearer way to know what exact version Django apps are compatible with would already be really helpful.
Currently 112 packages on the index classify as Django 1.8 compatible:
https://pypi.python.org/pypi?:action=browse&c=605
So encourage package maintainers to use those classifiers, and you'll be able to tell easily which packages are and aren't compatible :)
I'd have to agree with simonlebo - it's getting harder to find packages compatible with the latest version. Some of these are just slow at updating, but will eventually get around to it at some point. However given how old Django is now, there's going to be plenty of old projects which clutter up search results for packages which are no longer maintained.
Maybe djangopackages.com could add support/filtering to hide outdated Django projects. Or perhaps the encouragement could come in a more official way with a Django Package Index - a site which uses PyPI data, but with filtering biased towards the current released version of Django to encourage people who maintain those packages to get a new version out with support for the latest version.