St John Ambulance – Unofficial Blog

Just a quick post to please any technical person looking at the blog…
Yes, I am now running WordPress 2.7, and yes, I’ve got all of the new features working!

For the rest of you:
I’m going to be changing the layout of the blog by adding a new theme to it this week – note that it will completely change how it looks!

Following the 3,000 spam comments that I am in the process of deleting (20 at a time, thanks to WordPress), there are some major blog changes that will be implemented over the next 24 hours.

Firstly, the spam comments are being deleted so that they do not detract from the informational pleasure contained within.

Secondly, I’m updating the links to include some good SJA related websites I’ve discovered.

Thirdly, the password protection on the files is being removed. I’m sick to death of requests for the credentials. Also, I can’t help but wonder why St John can’t sort themselves out and get the templates to you all.

Fourthly, I’m updating wordpress to version 2.5, which will need about 5 minutes downtime. I plan to do this after 10pm tonight to minimise inconvenience. This will introduce akismet spam protection, and hopefully eliminate any more worthless comments.

Fifthly, I’m enabling the checkbox that says “users must be registered and logged in to comment” and also the one that says “comment authors must have a previously approved comment”.

Finally, I’m going to put one of my Google AdSense banners on here somewhere. I didn’t mind providing a charitable service when I was actually a member, however I haven’t been a member for 3 months now, so methinks its time to actually provide an ad-supported service!

Owing to a current investigation into copyright and trademark issues, St John Ambulance branded material has been password-protected. This is a temporary measure and I hope that free access can be restored in the near future. Thank you to the many users of this site who have expressed their appreciation at the work that has been done to make these materials available.

Apologies for the 3 weeks of unscheduled downtime, I had some issues with the site. That, and starting a new college year meant it was far easier to not support the site for a while until I could get everything all sorted out.

You may notice an article has gone missing – Cadet Membership Award. I’ve had to take this down, as it happens to be a product you should be ordering from St John Ambulance Supplies – see publications.
Anyway, all of the CI things are back, in line with the official release (I was as sick of waiting as all of you were, believe me…), and I can promise there is a lot more to come, including special LD/IOM versions.

Finally, does anybody have any county/unit specific forms that they would like checking over or putting into the new CI? If so, just send them to me at my usual email address and I shall do my best – I can usually get them back to you in around 7 days!