Updating the web site fails

[John W. Eaton]

I tried to update some content on the web site and "make deploy" is 
failing for me with

  $ make deploy
  All prerequisites fulfilled.
  [...]
  #
  # Add all potential new directories to CVS
  #
  cd ../octave && find . -type d -not -name "CVS" -exec cvs add '{}' \;
  cvs add: cannot add special file `.'; skipping
  cvs [add aborted]: there is a version in ./css already
  cvs [add aborted]: there is a version in ./doc already
  [...long list of similar messages...]
  Makefile:16: recipe for target 'deploy' failed
  make: *** [deploy] Error 123

What am I doing wrong?

jwe