<p dir="auto">Not able to create <a href="https://c9.io" rel="nofollow">Cloud9</a> account.<br>
Its asking credit card details to create an account.</p>
<p dir="auto">c9.io has been acquired by AWS and now requires the use of a credit card. Heroku also requires the use of a credit card for hosting - and also requires learning a bunch of Heroku-specific concepts - so it was never an optimal solution either.</p>
<p dir="auto">Many people outside of the US (and many people under the age of 18) do not have credit cards, and are understandably intimidated about entering them into services where they could screw up and end up owing hundreds of dollars.</p>
<p dir="auto">So let's step back and examine the underlying goals. We want campers to be able to:</p>
<ul dir="auto">
<li>build the back end projects</li>
<li>tie in databases and other services as necessary</li>
<li>host these projects somewhere permanently accessible</li>
</ul>
<h3 dir="auto">Essential tools for these projects</h3>
<p dir="auto">Development:</p>
<ul dir="auto">
<li>c9.io (free, requires credit card)</li>
<li>local development on machine</li>
<li>hyperdev.com (free)</li>
</ul>
<p dir="auto">Hosting:</p>
<ul dir="auto">
<li>Heroku (free, requires credit card)</li>
<li>hyperdev.com (free, no credit card)</li>
<li>AWS (free for 1 year, requires credit card - <a href="https://aws.amazon.com/free/" rel="nofollow">https://aws.amazon.com/free/</a>)</li>
</ul>
<p dir="auto">Mongo databases:</p>
<ul dir="auto">
<li>MLAB (free 0.5 gb, no credit card)</li>
<li>Compose (free 30-day trail, requires credit card)</li>
</ul>
<h3 dir="auto">Cloud development</h3>
<p dir="auto">My thinking at this point is that we could recommend HyperDev for development and hosting, and MLAB for the database. This setup would be free, with no credit card required. As far as I can tell, HyperDev projects remain publicly accessible indefinitely, so these URLs could be submitted as the live demo links.</p>
<p dir="auto">The main drawback with this is HyperDev is a limited environment (it's just Node, without Git, Linux, and many of the features of c9.io). But this limitation actually makes it much easier to use for beginners, in the same way that CodePen and JSBin abstract away file systems and web servers. HyperDev is essentially CodePen for Node.js development.</p>
<h3 dir="auto">Local Development</h3>
<p dir="auto">I also recommend we finalize a good tool for Node/Express development. In the past we've explored Vagrant and Docker.</p>
<p dir="auto">We could even create an image that we could load onto a bootable USB with Linux. This way, people who only have access to Windows machines (or public computers) could do their work right on a USB. They wouldn't need to download gigabytes of files.</p>
<p dir="auto">We could put the images for these bootable drives on Bit Torrent and even distribute the USBs in bulk through mail to Campsites.</p>
<p dir="auto">I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.</p>