In the past we’ve had a diet club here on Oland which was rather popular at the time, and so I’m pleased to announce that I’ve decided to relaunch that forum so we can all club together and give each other the morale support needed to shed those pounds. Then we can celebrate together in our success, or commiserate together when we gain a bit, and own up with shame when we’ve had some chocolate and have a guilty conscience for the rest of the week!

Everyone is welcome to join in with the club discussion¹. No diet plan or exercise plan is supplied, but no doubt ppl will discuss theirs so you could pick up a few tips, or you can ask about peoples plans to gain them too². Its amazing how much difference having some people joining in with you can make to a diet. A spirit of camaraderie and almost competition is created, and it can really help make a difference for some people. And here you’ll also have the advantage that your diet pals are other ostomates and so can offer you advice from their own ostomates perspective – something very few other diet clubs could do.

You’ll find the Ostomyland forum over on the community message board – or this link below will take you directly to the new diet club forum there:

http://www.ostomyland.org/ostomyboardipb/index.php?/
forum/195-ostomyland-post-christmas-diet-club/

1. A free members account is required to access the forums. Register here.
2. You should always consult your GP/Doctor before starting any diet regime and you partake at your own risk, as the diet forum is covered by the usual O’land medical disclaimer and forums TandC‘s.

Useful Links:
Ostomyland Community Support Board:
http://www.ostomyland.org/ostomyboardipb/
Ostomyland Post-Xmas Diet Club Forum:
http://www.ostomyland.org/ostomyboardipb/index.php?/
forum/195-ostomyland-post-christmas-diet-club/

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The first article is by O’land community member Andypig who has written about his experiences with FAP - Familial Adenomatous Polyposis. You can find Andy’s article under the sidebar menu’s Member Written Article heading, or directly via this link.

If you think you have an article which would be useful on the Ostomyland website then please do get in touch with us. You need to be a member of our community forums to be considered for the section, so feel free to register for a free account if you havent already done so.

We hope you enjoy reading Andy’s story, and we look forward to hopefully featuring your submission on the site soon!

Useful Links:
FAP – An Owners Guide - http://ostomyland.com/mainsite/fap-familiar-adenomatous-polyposis/

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We cannot thank the CA Trustees enough for the warm welcome they gave us to the event, and how they made us feel just as important as the huge companies. So, thanks CA, we really appreciate it!

External Links:
Colostomy Association (UK): http://www.colostomyassociation.org.uk/

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Ostomyland will be there as we have an exhibit table booked. This will be our second year at the CA Open Day and like last year we are looking forward to meeting many people, and hopefully spreading the word about Ostomyland a bit more around the patient community and manufacturers, and of course, offering advice and support to anyone whom requests it.

If you are at the open day please do pop by and say hi. Oland community moderator Sarah will be there, and hopefully senior admin Kathy will be around too. The open day starts at 9am and closes at 3pm. There are various speakers lined up for the day. The event is being held at Weetwood Hall, Leeds LS16. For full details please see the colostomy association website.

External Links:
Colostomy Association Website: http://www.colostomyassociation.org.uk

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On behalf of all the team members whom volunteer their time to help keep the website & community running smoothly, I’d like to say a huge thank you to all of our visitors over the last 13 and a half years, or 5000 days. We look forward to continuing this journey with you and personally I am very curious as to what the next 5000 days will have in store for us. One thing is for sure, it wouldnt be the same with you, our visitors and members.

If you have any comments about how Oland has helped you over the last 15 years, then we’d love to hear them. A forum has been created on the message board especially for those such posts, and you’ll find it here:
http://bit.ly/opR4o7
(Member account required, you can sign up for one here.)

Finally, we’ve got a present for everyone too – An Oland 5000th day celebratory wallpaper, and a windows screensaver too.

Thank you!

Jason
Owner/Webmaster
ostomyland.com

In short, as we no longer use IRC as our chat room format it means people can no longer access the room via mIRC or the previous Java-based chat applets either on this site, or on the forums.

The new system is written by Invision Power, whose software we use for our message board forums. This means that the chat room integrates seamlessly into the community forums, giving members easier accesss to the chat room, and a speedier connection along with a nicer user interface.

To access the new Ostomyland chat room, please visit our community forums, and click on the CHAT ROOM tab. (Member account required, and you must be logged in to that account to access the chat room.)
Direct Chat Room Link: http://www.ostomyland.org/ostomyboardipb/index.php?/chat/

We hope you enjoy using our new chat room and find it easier and speedier to use. Your comments on the chat room are always welcomed either via this post, or they can left on the various IPchat changeover announcements and tech help topics on the forums.

We look forward to chatting to you!

Useful links:
Community Message Board Forums: http://www.ostomyland.org/ostomyboardipb/
Register for the Community M.B. Forums: http://www.ostomyland.org/ostomyboardipb/index.php?app=core&module=global&section=register

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http://www.ostomyland.com/newsletter/3.html

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http://www.ostomyland.org/ostomyboardipb/index.php?/blog/15/entry-208-ostomyland-state-of-the-community-report-sept-2011/ – You need to be logged into a member account to be able to read it. You can register for the forums here and you can use existing Facebook, Twitter or Windows Live accounts to help you create your Oland account.

The report is my opportunity to inform the Ostomyland community of the progress we have made on the website & community in the previous 12 months or so. It is  also where we announce our plans for the year ahead, and what we plan to change, or schemes/features we want to try and launch. Finally the cherry on the cake (aka the last paragraph in a very long blog entry lol) is a run down on some of the more interesting statistics for the site, such as Countries which visit us most often, community posting records and fun stuff like that.

Comments are always welcomed on the report and on our plans for the year ahead. Ostomyland may be my website, but its our community, so I like to give full details to open up any discussion there may be about the plans so everyone has a chance to express their thoughts on Ostomyland’s progression.

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“Wow… really…. thats great…. um, what that mean exactly?”

Hey, I’m so glad you asked! Google +1 is basically Google’s equivalent to the Facebook “like” button, and is a major part of the Google Plus program which in turn is Google’s version/evolution of the Facebook. It’s currently undergoing closed beta testing with people who have received invitations from either Google themselves, or from their friends whom were lucky enough to get one.

Every news post and article page on Ostomyland now features the Google +1 button – check at the bottom of this post and you’ll see it next to the Facebook “like” button. As an added bonus I’ve also re-introduced the Tweet option, and included Stumble Upon too which is gaining in popularity every day too.

Clicking this Google +1 button not only shows that you “like” that specific post/page’s content, but crucially it helps us get better result rankings on Google’s search engine, which is great. So, if enough people clicked the buttons then it could really boost our search engine rankings for that particular post/page, and thus the number of new visitors we get to the site, most of whom will be looking for Ostomy support, which in turn will help our community grow.

So, if you “Facebook-Like” a post, then please consider giving it a Google +1 too! Heh, did you see what I did there… Google +1 too… 1… 2…. heh. OK, its early and I need some caffeine, so the jokes are a bit lame at the moment.

As always thanks for your continuing support of the site – you guys are great and help make Ostomyland what is it today!

External Links:
For more information on the Google Plus and Google +1 features, please visit: http://plus.google.com and http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=1140194

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This 56 page magazine features all the usual quarterly features, along with the following special articles:

• Pathways to a Colostomy – Sarah’s Journey
• Exercise: Focus on Swimming
• Ken’s Story
• Reverse Gear
• Breakaway: A Family Affair…

… and many more too!

The cover star for this issue is none other than Oland community moderator Sarah73 for the article Pathways to a Colostomy – Sarah’s Journey and we’re delighted to be able to host a PDF copy of the article, which can be downloaded here…

Cover Article:
Pathways to a Colostomy: Sarah’s Journey

You can read the complete issue of Tidings online here:
http://www.colostomyassociation.org.uk/_assets/File/Magazine/tidings_issue21.pdf
NB: Both files require Adobe Reader or equivalent PDF reading software.

For more details on the UK Colostomy Association, please visit their website, linked below, or give them a call on 0118 939 1537.

Useful Links:
UK Colostomy Association: http://www.colostomyassociation.org.uk

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