Rename Netlify preview-only host or host docs via Netlify

[chalin]

Originally posted by @michi-covalent in #164 (comment)

• Docs have two hosts: I'd like some insights as to why there seem to be two hosting services active for the docs.

https://docs.cilium.io is currently using readthedocs to host the production site. we use cncf netlify account for deploy previews. https://docs-cilium-io.netlify.app comes from that. not sure if there is a way to disable *.netlify.app domain.

The current situation is a bit confusing. Two options come to mind:

1. Consider renaming the Netlify preview-only host to contain "preview" in the name. That makes it clear that the hosting service is used for previews only (I know of at least one other CNCF project that has done this).
2. Consider actually hosting the production site and docs via Netlify. I seem to recall a CNCF project that had done this, but I might be confusing this with Mkdocs. I'll have to double check and get back to you. See next comment for details.

Thoughts @michi-covalent @lizrice @xmulligan @qmonnet

[chalin]

Envoy is the project that hosts everything through Netlify via a single site, including their many versions of docs build with Sphinx & Read the Docs. Here are some links of interested in case you'd like to see how they have it setup:

• Repo: https://github.com/envoyproxy/envoy-website
• Main site: https://envoyproxy.io
• Docs:
  • Docs section: https://envoyproxy.io/docs
  • Example: https://envoyproxy.io/docs/envoy/latest/

[xmulligan]

How urgent is this? We just hired someone you probably know from the cloud native ecosystem to focus on docs. They will be starting in the new year. Can this wait until they join?

[chalin]

Not urgent. 23Q1 seems fine.

Another option would be to use Netlify snippet injection to add a banner to the preview-only site so that folks who land on it know that it is preview-only. With that in place, it might be unnecessary to rename the Netlify host.