Why getforge?

[eeue56]

From https://github.com/elmbridge/curriculum/blob/master/Deployment%20and%20Next%20Steps.md#deployment

Why use getforge over just publishing it to github.io? It's one less account to make, assuming they'll be using github for things

The guide here is pretty good and simple to follow -> https://pages.github.com/

[raorao]

my logic: drag and drop deployment is easy. perhaps that page should also suggest github pages, though.

[avh4]

I personally would prefer using github over another service like getforge, however, there are some downsides to github pages:

The instructions are easiest if you are publishing your main user page user.github.io vs another project page user.github.io/project:

• If we give the user.github.io instructions, then some students might already have a site published there, and we'd have to give them alternate instructions if they don't want to erase their existing site
• If we give the user.github.io/project instructions, it could be confusing to new git users because of the unusual use of branches with the gh-pages branch.

[ento]

gist + bl.ocks.org is github-based and lightweight:

• drag and drop files to a new gist
  • remove stylesheets and dist from href/src in index.html because gist doesn't accept subdirectories
  • alternatively, use a command line tool to upload: https://bost.ocks.org/mike/block/
    • requires you to make a personal access token on GitHub
    • still need to flatten directory structure
• go to https://bl.ocks.org/<username>/<gist id>/

although

• bl.ocks is another service
• it'd be better to flatten the directory structure to make it easier to upload
• the command line tool will complain if there's already a remote named origin (the tool takes an option to use another remote name, but can be a stumbling block for some)

[verythorough]

I recently researched quick, easy, and free static hosts, and found that BitBalloon had by far the least friction:

• Drag and drop a folder - it doesn't even need to be zipped!
• No account necessary to see (and share) the deployed site/app
• To avoid having the deployment deleted after a day, log in with GitHub or Mozilla Persona
• Update deployment by re-dragging the folder, and only changed files will update
• CLI client available as well

That said, for people familiar with git/GitHub, they may want to use that instead. A month ago, I would have agreed with @avh4 's concerns, but now that you can publish directly from master (woohoo!) the gh-pages hassle is no longer an issue.