backup plan when gitpod is asking for payment

[moul]

for an unclear reason, some workshop attendees were asked to pay for gitpod.

we should find a method to allow everyone using gitpod for free during our workshop.

we've a paid gitpod organization, so maybe we can contact their support and ask for a way to offer coupons that could use our organization credit for 2h sessions.

any other idea?

cc @thehowl

[moul]

Update @michelleellen had a similar issue.

[thehowl]

@leohhhn instead had an issue whereby he needed to do phone verification, and it was not sending him an SMS. So I agree a backup plan could be useful.

In gnoverse/gnochess#45 I was thinking of possibly overcoming this by providing a docker-compose.yml configuration as an alternative to gitpod instead.

I tend to slightly prefer docker-compose; as the coupon is likely to work only for a subset of potential problems (ie. I'm pretty sure leon would still have had to verify his phone by contacting support). I already tried contacting gitpod to ask if we could have any limitations lifted on the repo, at least during the span of the workshop, but they weren't willing to do anything of the sort. Coupons might work for this specific issue in future workshops, in the meantime.