The key is to invent a new term for an existing entity. Here the author tries to introduce the term "document site" for static websites.
hehe, I guess it's translated from Chinese
The Chinese version does use the literal equivalent 文档站点. However, the usual term used by Chinese developers for static sites appears to be 静态网站 (see e.g. the entry in Baidu's encyclopedia https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E9%9D%99%E6%80%81%E7%BD%91%E7%... )
Maybe the author was simply unaware that static site generators exist because all they wanted to do was upload documents.
It's a static site generator
Tied to a single hosting provider
Seems like essentially a free hosting service for websites generated from Markdown
Do you know how it is free? The cost of hosting static document only sites will be low but not zero. So is the cost being eaten by the owner or are adverts/tracking inserted?
if you have enough money, it's a common strategy to make a free product to attract users. Once you have an important user-base, your company has a value
So the upsell comes later?
Of course!
not always. i'd be happy to throw a little money at hosting a ton of stuff if it served as a load-test for my work. unfortunately, trying to find something to give away that other people will use isn't as easy as one might think
Even if you don't have a lot of money, you can probably run a niche product like that for little money, as long as it doesn't get too popular.