1. You shouldn't be updating your `.gitignore` continuously. You need to ignore everything and explicitly define exceptions e.g.
*
!.gitignore
!init.el
2. The reason I prefer ~/.emacs.d/ is that I have it in a git repo and on every system, I'll just clone the repo and soft link it in the home directory. This way, I have only one directory inside home about emacs within which my files are explicitly separated and tracked.
P.S. I've recently tried to move from Spacemacs to Emacs and by no means a pro, so the process I've described may not be optimal.
P.S. I've recently tried to move from Spacemacs to Emacs and by no means a pro, so the process I've described may not be optimal.