Well, I'm sure everyone knows what a sidebar is. I personally think that they're a great way to organize a form. Though, not all of the Admin on my board think so. Some say it makes the site look horrible, others say it makes it look great, then there are the people who don't really care. What do you guys think? Sidebar, or no sidebar?

I like them a lot more than info boxes. They are useful, too, and make your site look more like a portal.

I hate it when there is a huge banner and then a huge info box that makes the index page a lot longer, so the sidebar is a much more efficient method, imho.

Just don't make it so big that it stretches the actual forum categories, and I'd like it. I think they look pretty cool, but I have yet to figure out how to do it for my own forums.

I love sidebars! I just need to get the hang of it since it's hard to perfect it.

I'm not a very big fan of them, because the ones I have seen stretch the skin and make it hard to read.

I like sidebars, so long as it's actual useful material and not things just a stupid twin graphic to the banner next to it. if they're the right proportion to the layout of the site, they work wonders.

I agree with jamaloo and Darth - sidebars can be extremely useful and interesting as long as they aren't just there to look pretty and stretch the skin. I've been on sites where it is so stretched out that I can't read anything even though I have my monitor set to the largest setting. o_O Its ridiculous. I don't want to have to scroll to the right to read the actual RP versus the C-box.

I have a huge monitor so it may be harder for me to tell, but the problem isn't the sidebar so much as the forum table side. You have to make the forum table under 750 pixels wide. One mistake people make is not watching their logo banner size, because even if they have the forum table set right, but the logo is too big, then it will stretch the forum. We have our forum table set at 720, which seems to be a good size. Puppeteer has a small monitor at work, so we worked with it until it fit well.

I might be slightly jaded on this topic as I'm a web programmer and in my personal opinion if someone with a 800x600 resolution can not view your site then you've just cut down your membership and the whole point of making a site is to get members. I personally love sidebars for a regular run of the mill website but for a forum I think it's just a little too much.

To make the sidebar and the actual table content fit into a 800x600 resolution generally makes the board unappeaing for those that have a great sized resolution. I much prefer the regular old look of just adding an extra table in to fit information that you think is so important that it must be on everypage.

To me sidebars are never as well-done as they should be. If used correctly they can work, but they need to tie into your skin, present relevant information, and add something that would never work in the traditional table-and-marquee. The best example I've seen of this is the Infamy and Entropy sidebar; it looks gorgeous with the skin and effortlessly fits into the page, without stretching it or distracting from the forum text. The admins have managed to do this by keeping content short and relevant, with links as shortcuts that are clearly there to help people. If you're making a sidebar because it'll be an added resource for members, do so. But it should never be there simply because it looks nice because, well, it usually doesn't (plus they can slow down the board significantly).

I have a side bar on my own site and I love it. The only problem is, like people say, it stretches the forum out. Though it doesn't stretch the index pages out, only the pages where people post. That's because of signatures and avatars. They take a lot of room no matter how small and don't leave a lot of space for the post, therefor the page gets stretch. I myself have learned to live with it. It's also nice cause I can put the CBOX on the side too and it makes it easier to find.

I love sidebars! Even if they're used on every site, like people say, they are a GREAT way to organize information and links. Plus, you get the see the Admin's graphic skills with the little category headers. It can make a site look MUCH more appealing. Yeah, sidebars can stretch skins, but that doesn't bother me as much because hey, I have a laptop and the resolution is huge, XD. But when I made mine, I double-checked it with my home computer - resolution is 1024x786, I think.

But yeah, I'd go with it if you can get the coding right and all.

Could I get your guys personal opinions? I just installed a side bar myself, and I would like to know how people feel about it: Click here (Please not this is not in anyway an attempt to advertise, but a legitimate concern of mine.)

I have always loved side bars, and want to immediately join a forum when I see them. That’s the reason I decided to use one myself. You can set your sidebar to an 800x600 resolution, but I think that looks like crap. Everything is squeezed together most of the time, and aggravating to read. If you set it to a higher resolution there shouldn’t be a problem. I mean do you really want to appeal to random member who have there screens set to a specific setting, or do you want to make your real members comfortable that apply to the suggested resolution?

it seems like everyone's using sidebars now... i'm kind of indifferent to them. i don't like how some stretch the page, but i do like how it looks with certain skins, so i guess it just depends. (wow that was a completey pointless post since i just contridicted myself, but thats okay (tongue) )