diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 94c928843c..6641f347d9 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -47,3 +47,6 @@ nosetests.xml
 # Windows files generated during setup
 evennia.bat
 twistd.bat
+
+# never commit docs/build
+docs/build
diff --git a/docs/deploy.sh b/docs/deploy.sh
index 96a3988953..d6432cb111 100644
--- a/docs/deploy.sh
+++ b/docs/deploy.sh
@@ -12,13 +12,15 @@ fi
 
 # get the deployment branch
 git checkout gh-pages
+# at this point we should be inside the docs/ folder of the gh-pages branch,
+# with the build/ directory available since this is not in git
 
-mv build ..
-# the docs/ folder is named the same in both branches so we need to step out of 
-# it to not confuse what's what.
-cd ..
-rm -Rf docs/*
-cp -Rf build/html/versions/* docs/
+# remove all but the build dir
+ls -Q | grep -v build | xargs rm -Rf
+
+mv build/html/versions/* .
+# docs/build is in .gitignore so will not be included
+git add .
 
 # TODO automate this? 
 ln -s 1.0-dev docs/latest
diff --git a/docs/source/conf.py b/docs/source/conf.py
index b71b423a99..435fdea0e9 100644
--- a/docs/source/conf.py
+++ b/docs/source/conf.py
@@ -143,8 +143,7 @@ smv_tag_whitelist = r"^$"
 # which branches to include in multi-version docs
 # - master, develop and vX.X branches
 smv_branch_whitelist = r"^master$|^develop$|^v[0-9\.]+?$"
-# smv_branch_whitelist = r"^static-file-docs$|^static-file-dev$"
-smv_outputdir_format = "versions" + sep + "{config.release}"
+smv_outputdir_format = "{config.release}"
 
 
 # recommonmark