Thanks for someone pointing this out. There are a lot of places in the code that could use some cleaning up. The overall frontend code structure is a little lacking:

* There's a "main.js", and a bunch of empty .coffee files that were presumably generated via a generator. Choose one frontend language and use it.

* Vendor libs should go in vendor/assets/javascripts. This codebase has assets/javascripts/vendor, and then random vendor libs that aren't even in that folder, they're just in "javascripts".

* The frontend code is going to quickly become jquery soup. There's no structure, all code executes on all pages.

* Very minor, but OS specific files should be omitted from git (like .DS_Store)

* Test coverage seems pretty low

* The secret token is public in the git repo (Why not use secrets.yml and keep it out of SCM to be safe?)

There are a myriad of other minor issues as well. It's a good idea for a project, and would help a lot of entrepreneurs out of done properly, but there are some glaring code quality issues here that worry me about the project as it grows.

Also really great feedback. I have been programming for only three years so I am still learning much of what you describe. I will be cleaning out the unused template files very soon. Good point on jQuery firing on each page, although I am not really sure why it matters if it has no effect. Processing time? There are no tests but I hope to add some soon. (I have never written any, so I will have to learn)

For the JQuery, it is more about separation of concerns and keeping a maintainable an clear codebase. If all of your JQuery is in one file and somehow a small change to one part breaks another page's code that can be very difficult to catch/fix. It's just good form in general to separate it out.

You're also right about performance. Loading unnecessary stuff on a page is just going to slow everything down.

It's a great idea and also being a relatively new starter myself I can relate. Hopefully you can take all the feedback everyone is giving and make your project better!

This is very valuable feedback! Thank you so much. I will remove protected attributes. I have thought about deletion and dependents and so forth I just wasn't sure how to address it yet. I must admit, I have completely ignored tests, thinking that I would write them later, but perhaps this is the wrong approach. As for indentations, they show properly on my end in Sublime, I will have to see why they appear differently in the repo. Again, really great feedback, I may take you up on a further discussion.