diff --git a/doc/admin/config.rst b/doc/admin/config.rst
index edeb60ad1..28756bb51 100644
--- a/doc/admin/config.rst
+++ b/doc/admin/config.rst
@@ -28,6 +28,7 @@ Example::
     currency=EUR
     cookiedomain=.pretix.de
     securecookie=on
+    datadir=/data
 
 ``instance_name``
     The name of this installation. Default: ``pretix.de``
@@ -49,6 +50,10 @@ Example::
 ``securecookie``
     Set the ``secure`` and ``httponly`` flags on session cookies. Off by default.
 
+``datadir``
+    The local path to a data directory that will be used for storing user uploads and similar
+    data.
+
 Locale settings
 ---------------
 
@@ -87,23 +92,23 @@ Example::
 ``user``, ``password``, ``host``, ``port``
     Connection details for the database connection. Empty by default.
 
-Uploaded files
---------------
+URLs
+-----
 
 Example::
 
-    [media]
-    url=/media/
-    root=media
+    [urls]
+    media=/media/
+    static=/media/
 
-``root``
-    The filesystem location to store user-uploaded content at. By default, this takes
-    the value of the environment variable ``MEDIA_ROOT``, if present, or ``media`` if not.
-
-``url``
+``media``
     The URL to be used to serve user-uploaded content. You should not need to modify
     this. Default: ``/media/``
 
+``static``
+    The URL to be used to serve static files. You should not need to modify
+    this. Default: ``/static/``
+
 Email
 -----
 
@@ -155,23 +160,5 @@ Example::
 
     .. WARNING:: Never set this to ``True`` in production!
 
-Static files
-------------
-
-You should *not* need to modify these settings as logn as you don't want to use a
-custom delivery method for static files such as an external CDN.
-
-Example::
-
-    [static]
-    url=/static/
-    root=_static
-
-``url``
-    The URL to be used to serve static files. Default: ``/static/``.
-
-``root``
-    The filesystem path to be used for static file storage. Default: ``_static``
-
 
 .. _Python documentation: https://docs.python.org/3/library/configparser.html?highlight=configparser#supported-ini-file-structure
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/pretix/settings.py b/src/pretix/settings.py
index 51580f255..32282959b 100644
--- a/src/pretix/settings.py
+++ b/src/pretix/settings.py
@@ -7,11 +7,15 @@ config.read(['/etc/pretix/pretix.cfg', os.path.expanduser('~/.pretix.cfg'), 'pre
             encoding='utf-8')
 
 BASE_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.dirname(__file__))
+DATA_DIR = config.get('pretix', 'datadir', fallback='data')
+
+if not os.path.exists(DATA_DIR):
+    os.mkdir(DATA_DIR)
 
 if config.has_option('django', 'secret'):
     SECRET_KEY = config.get('django', 'secret')
 else:
-    SECRET_FILE = os.path.join(BASE_DIR, '.secret')
+    SECRET_FILE = os.path.join(DATA_DIR, '.secret')
     if os.path.exists(SECRET_FILE):
         with open(SECRET_FILE, 'r') as f:
             SECRET_KEY = f.read().strip()
@@ -37,10 +41,8 @@ DATABASES = {
 }
 
 STATIC_URL = config.get('static', 'url', fallback='/static/')
-STATIC_ROOT = config.get('static', 'root', fallback='_static')
 
 MEDIA_URL = config.get('media', 'url', fallback=os.environ.get('MEDIA_ROOT', '/media/'))
-MEDIA_ROOT = config.get('media', 'root', fallback='media')
 
 PRETIX_INSTANCE_NAME = config.get('pretix', 'instance_name', fallback='pretix.de')
 PRETIX_GLOBAL_REGISTRATION = config.getboolean('pretix', 'global_registration', fallback=True)
@@ -68,6 +70,9 @@ LANGUAGE_COOKIE_DOMAIN = SESSION_COOKIE_DOMAIN = CSRF_COOKIE_DOMAIN = config.get
 
 # Internal settings
 
+STATIC_ROOT = '_static'
+MEDIA_ROOT = os.path.join(DATA_DIR, 'media')
+
 SESSION_COOKIE_NAME = 'pretix_session'
 LANGUAGE_COOKIE_NAME = 'pretix_language'
 CSRF_COOKIE_NAME = 'pretix_csrftoken'
@@ -212,7 +217,7 @@ LOGGING = {
 
     },
     'loggers': {
-        '': {
+        'django.request': {
             'handlers': ['console'],
             'level': 'DEBUG',
             'propagate': True,