CISV Devils Blog.

Closing down the CISV Devils' website in a smart way turned out to be a little more work than anticipated. I redesigned the welcome, the archive and the about page - made sure that the even an idiot visiting this page realises that the Devils have retired. I also put a search box on the top of every page, and moved this sideblog to its own page. I guess I'll keep the comments open until the first spam comes in, and then close the comments forever (I hope that's easy...).

Marcos summarized my last sideblog post nicely with a quotation from Neil Young. Looking at the number of comments on Proposal #58 today, I wonder if it's already to late for burning...

No, it's not a joke, by December 31st 2008 CISV Devils will be retiring. Why? There's a bunch of reasons, that contribute, let me explain:
- The majority of people that led to the birth of CISV Devils are not involved anymore as much as they used to. Aside from the fact that I just *know* this to be a fact, it can be seen by the amount of proposals coming in and the frequenty of commenting. Teo, Marcos, Basti and the likes are doing other things these days. I know there is a new "devilish" generation of CISVers out there, but they don't seem to view CISV Devils as their home - which is ok! In CISV (just like anywhere else) people take ownership upon projects mostly, if they were part in the creation, formation and development. It's only logical for me, that CISV Devils needs to close down, to create "space" for new people to start new projects. You can take the Devils website away, but the thinking-outside-the-box, the creativity, the rebellion against the CISV establishment (wow, what an expression) will always be there. Which leads me to my second point...
- The rebellious and revolutionary aspect of anything is lost, as soon as becomes part of the establishment. So CISV Devils has become an institution. People know about it, it was in the AIM newspaper, there was a session at the Mococo-Workshop - but at the same time CISV Devils is losing some of it magic. It's like city development: The day the bourgeoisie discovers a part of town as vanguard, the artists have long moved elsewhere. I don't think that CISV Devils is "gentrified" yet, but I really don't want it to be.
- Even though the website is not much work, it takes some time, effort and motivation, to keep it running, cool and interesting. All three resources are running on low battery here, so I'd prefer a strong cut instead of having it phasing out.
BUT...just in case you still have a great proposal in your drawer, or think CISV is crap for some specific reason, please do send me your stuff, I'll publish them until the end of the year. I'd love to see a final firework before the CISV Devil will forever be silent.
Oh, and it should be mentioned that I'm not planning on taking the website down: So the old proposals will be available until the average internet erosion makes them inaccessible.