Personal website — setup guide

This folder is a ready-to-deploy AcademicPages (Jekyll) site, pre-customized for Mo Yunxiang. It will look very similar to https://rcorona.github.io once you fill in your real content.

Step 1 — Create the GitHub repo

Go to https://github.com/new
Repo name: <your-github-username>.github.io (this exact name is required for free hosting)
Visibility: Public
Do NOT check “Add a README” / “Add .gitignore” / “Add license” — this folder already has its own initial commit
Click “Create repository”

GitHub will show a page with a URL like [email protected]:<your-username>/<your-username>.github.io.git. Copy it.

Step 2 — Push this folder to that repo

Open Terminal in this folder (/Users/moyunxiang/kevinelw/study/coding/resume/personal-website) and run:

git remote add origin [email protected]:<your-username>/<your-username>.github.io.git
git push -u origin main

(If you use HTTPS instead of SSH, use the https://github.com/... URL.)

Step 3 — Turn on GitHub Pages

On GitHub, go to your new repo → Settings → Pages (left sidebar)
Under “Build and deployment” → “Source”, choose Deploy from a branch
Branch: main, folder: / (root), click Save
Wait 1–3 minutes. Your site will be live at https://<your-username>.github.io

Step 4 — Replace the placeholders

The following placeholders are scattered through the site — search and replace each:

Placeholder	Where	Replace with
`YOUR_GITHUB_USERNAME`	`_config.yml`, `_pages/about.md`	your GitHub handle
`YOUR_SCHOLAR_ID`	`_config.yml`, `_pages/about.md`	from your Google Scholar profile URL
`[Paper Title — ACL 2026]` etc.	`_publications/*.md`, `_pages/about.md`	real paper titles, authors, links
`[Advisor Name]`, `[Lab Name]`	`_pages/about.md`	your advisor / lab
`[email protected]`	`_config.yml`	your real email
`images/profile.png`	`images/` folder	overwrite with your headshot, same filename

VS Code: Cmd+Shift+F to search across the whole folder.

Step 5 — Edit content

Each section is just a Markdown file. Edit, commit, push — GitHub Pages rebuilds automatically (takes ~1 min).

File	What it controls
`_config.yml`	Site title, sidebar info, social links
`_pages/about.md`	The homepage you see at `/`
`_pages/cv.md`	The `/cv/` page
`_publications/*.md`	One Markdown file per paper. Listed automatically on `/publications/`
`_data/navigation.yml`	The top menu bar
`images/profile.png`	The sidebar headshot
`files/cv.pdf`	Drop your CV PDF here; about page links to it

Step 6 (optional) — Preview locally

Not required (GitHub Pages builds it for you), but if you want to see changes before pushing:

# One-time setup (your Mac has Ruby 2.6 — Jekyll wants 2.7+; easiest is via Homebrew)
brew install ruby
echo 'export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/ruby/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc
gem install bundler jekyll

# In this folder:
bundle install
bundle exec jekyll serve -l -H localhost
# Open http://localhost:4000

If local preview is annoying, just push to GitHub and check the live site — the iteration loop is ~1 min.

Step 7 (optional) — Custom domain

Buy a domain (e.g. Cloudflare Registrar ~$10/yr), add a CNAME file with yunxiangmo.com in this folder, and configure DNS per GitHub’s docs.

What’s already done for you

✅ Cloned AcademicPages template
✅ _config.yml filled with HKUST profile skeleton
✅ Homepage rewritten (HKUST CS+Math+AI, ACL/EMNLP, US exchange ask)
✅ Two publication entries seeded (ACL 2026, EMNLP 2025) — fill in the real details
✅ Top navigation trimmed to Publications + CV (matches rcorona.github.io)
✅ Demo content (sample papers/talks/blog posts) deleted
✅ Fresh git repo with one clean initial commit, ready to push

What you still need to do

⬜ Replace placeholders (Step 4)
⬜ Drop in images/profile.png (your headshot)
⬜ Drop in files/cv.pdf (your CV)
⬜ Real paper titles, abstracts, links
⬜ Push to GitHub (Steps 1–3)

Good luck!

Yunxiang Mo