Quote:
Originally Posted by
j 
The sidebar is not a glitch, though it is not in its final form right now. I know it looks ridiculous currently. In the future the sidebar will also be used to deliver useful content such as tags, reviews, etc. I think you guys will like it, actually. I didn't at first, but it grew on me. If it is really too much, we may adjust it later on as well. Edit: also, it will only be alongside the first couple of posts on a page - not as intrusive as currently.
There is no such thing as a sidebar that is not intrusive. The current sidebar takes up hundreds of pixels of horizontal space in a block at the top-right of a page. It leaves a huge gap at the right side of any thread with enough posts that they extend downward below the bottom of the block. (Even if it were a
float:right block and the lower posts had full 100% width again, it would be annoying to say the least.) You can insert as much space adspace as you want at the
bottom of every page. You can revert to a
thin row at the
top of every page -- that was fine. But this enormous, garish, retina-raping eyesore of a giant billboard intruding upon every single page site-wide is nearly unforgivable from a user POV. If you are intent on preserving this format despite its hideousness and enormous potential for driving away visitors/pageviews,
at the very least consider that having two columns of advertisers is unnecessary. The only thing that is the full width of the sidebar is the completely useless "StyleForum frontpage" graphic. Delete that completely and have one single column of 120px-wide affiliate graphics going down the side and it would be a huge improvement over what I'm looking at as I type this.