Community package docs, demos and other important websites on *.meteor.com

[brajt]

Copied from another thread. Please, let’s continue this discussion here, as it will vanish in the original one among a sea of other posts.

@wesleyfsmith

What about all of the free apps that are used to demo meteor packages? IMO this was the best thing about the free hosting, as many meteor packages had a running example that was only a click away. I think that’s the biggest loss when moving away from free hosting.

@mizzao

Agreed. I have a lot of package demos on meteor.com which are just for the community, and don’t feel like paying $$ per month on my own dime to maintain them.

I think the lack of free hosting for package authors will have a chilling effect on well maintained and readily available documentation in our community. I’m sure we can find a solution around this, any ideas?

@joshowens

Github pages can cover documentation sites. Demo sites are the real issue…

@mizzao

Yes, exactly. For example, http://user-status.meteor.com/

@lassombra

Perhaps, but demo sites are important. People need to be able to see, in a real meteor environment what some of the more aggressive packages do. It reduces the barrier to adoption and allows truly excellent packages to really bubble to the top helping keep Meteor on top. I think that taking away the demo space is a real mistake for the MDG. I know I for one will not be paying to host demos of my packages, I’ll continue to develop them for personal use and publish them, but I won’t bother working to get the word out because without a demo, what’s the point?