Jennifer asked asked last week about how people feel about the sidebar of her blog. I wonder the same thing, but I don’t have the script in place to let you answer the questions interactively, so you have to leave comments. Please write out complete answers, and don’t forget to show your work…
:: Do you ever look at my sidebar at all?
:: What sections in my sidebar do you use?
:: Do you care at all about the media sections? Small Screen / Big Screen / Books / Music?
:: If my blogroll disappeared, or moved to a different page, would you notice? Would you care?
In order to speed things up around here even more, I’m considering making a skin that has just posts, and everything else is on a portal-type page. I’ll still keep the media blog going, so all of the movies & books can be posted there. I can leave the sidebars on some skins, but make even “lighter” skins without them if there is interest.
So, are you interested? What do you think about the sidebars? What do you use?
28 replies on “Ch-Ch-Changes…”
The most useful things in people’s sidebars are the things I left in my own – and I dumped everything else. *SEARCH* is a big thing. If I remember you posted about something, but don’t remember when, I’ll search for it. Recent comments… that’s pretty much it! 🙂 I got rid of my links list because I wasn’t even using them anymore (now that I read blogs almost completely from NewzCrawler). Besides, I really don’t like the whole thing of “I like you, I’ll link you, but I don’t like you anymore, so I’m de-linking you…” Cool enough for some blog rolls – not cool enough for others… I thought we were “blogging for ourselves”…. sorry… long comment. (You see, it’s not that I don’t comment – I just don’t comment OFTEN. When I do – it’s QUALITY… right? 😉 Yeah, that’s the ticket!! ROFL!)
Other than the obvious looking to see if I’m linked on peoples’ sidebars, I do look at the info about the blog owner, the links to things they find interesting, and I enjoy surfing others’ blogrolls to find interesting blogs I’ve missed.
I DO notice when someone used to link me and then they don’t anymore. I try not to cry over it, but I do find myself wondering if I was just too boring or what made them stop linking me. LOL! It’s all about me, see? 😉
I personally would miss sidebars if they all just disappeared.
To Lisa’s point – I like to look at those things, too – I just don’t know that I need to see them *on every page*… I think a “portal” or an “about” page serves that purpose… Ok, I’ll shut up and stop spouting my anti-sidebar propaganda…
That’s the perk of skins though – I can make a skin without a sidebar at all, and dump all of that stuff on separate pages – about, links, media, etc. I think the default skin will always have a sidebar though. Some skins will just have lighter sidebars then others – how does that sound? 😉
I have to generally agree with everyone else. I use my own link list to surf, only rarely do I explore anyone else’s and other than a prominent link to an about page, that’s all I look for in a sidebar.
But hey, no one listens to me. 😉
I like to look at blogrolls of people whose blogs I like. That’s probably where a large percentage of my links come from, just randomly seeing an interesting blogroll link and then blogrolling it. I have the main people that I visit multiple times a day or every day on my index and then link to the rest of them, and that works good for me.
If you do want a portal of sorts, you are in luck: I just Posted about them 🙂
I think I might look at the media stuff more often if I remembered they were there. Maybe a link to the most recent media entry, and then a link to an index page that has all of them (ala my collectics blog?)
I definately like the Take a Bite, Group Blogs, and Mini Me sections, as they define you and have links to all your stuff; if I’m looking for something about you, I know I can look there.
But ya know, after saying all that, the best advise I could give is for you to make your sidebar good for YOU! The things I have on my sidebar, for the most part, are things I want to see regularly. Sure, some things are helpful to everyone, but I keep the things *I* use 🙂
Since you’re asking for feedback…
I know this is Big PINK Cookie, and all, but I think you need to change your link color in your default skin *away* from light-pink. It is impossible to see on a white backround.
Skins do exist, but I think that the default skin for a site should be one easiest on the eyes.
I rarely look at the sidebars unless I have just started reading the blog or I am directed to something on it. On yours I think there is too much and the interesting bits get swallowed up.
What is it over there that you would consider the “interesting bits”? I’m curious – because I am trying to figure that out, in addition to featuring them even better.
I do check out the sidebar, but not each time I visit (i.e.: I did notice the change to “Dating”). I also read some of your blogroll to look for new and interesting reads.
I like: Take a Bite, Group Blogs and the blogroll. I think it would be cool if you had an about page that included Mini-Me, Want To Own Me?, and everything below your blogroll.
Oh, and I don’t have a problem reading the pink on my screen.
I honestly hardly ever use anyone’s sidebar … that’s pretty much why I ditched my own on my redesign. Like Jen said, search is a useful thing – I’ve used it on occasion at a few sites to look up old things I knew they had discussed. (I’m hoping to implement search on my site soon …) I like reviews, but I wouldn’t ever think/remember to look at your sidebar for them – I’d pretty much only read them if you mentioned them in a post. 🙂 I wouldn’t at all notice if the blogroll moved. 🙂
:: Do you ever look at my sidebar at all? No, I did the first time, searched through “Take a bite” and now I just read your posts.
:: What sections in my sidebar do you use? None.
:: Do you care at all about the media sections? Not really.
:: If my blogroll disappeared, or moved to a different page, would you notice? Would you care? I say a portal page is okay. You don’t have to kill the side links, it’s entertaining, and it fills space. But it’s up to you 😉
I like to browse the links. I also look at about pages, but usually only once. And I also look for features like an RSS feed, and photologs.
Also, I agree with the comment about the pink colored links. They are a bit hard to read sometime. I always have to tilt my screen a little to see what they say.
I think you should do what makes you happy – it seems like you have a lot of stuff there saying “update me!” That’s a lot of work – love your blog 🙂
I frequently look at the blogrolls of other bloggers, including yours. Sometimes I’m reminded of a particular blog when I see that it’s been updated recently or rotates through the sidebar’s latest display. I don’t link to these blogs directly because my blogroll is mostly about what I like to read as opposed to reciprocal links or who’s popular.
Anyway, to the rest of your questions… I generally don’t pay much attention on a regular basis to the sidebars that features extraneous information. Sometimes, I’ll take a closer look, but certainly not a regular basis. Also, the more image links I see in a sidebar, the less likely I am to peruse for good stuff. As with many other commenters, I find the search feature most useful, followed closely by a well organized archive that includes categories.
i always look at people’s side bars especially when it’s a fresh find and i’m looking for that “about me” link. i’m still tweaking my portal and so once i have i completed, i think i’m going to completely wipe out my side bars and increase the post column size and just put the bare necessities in a single side bar. doing that is the hard part because i’m so accustomed to looking at my double side bars. i am going to put a search feature.
i like the “take a bite” and the “mini me” but if you wanted to really trim down your side bar, maybe you can move the media, reads and music to another page or keep them but trim them down to just one on each section.
:: Do you ever look at my sidebar at all? … not every day, but from time to time I do.
:: What sections in my sidebar do you use? i check out the blogs you’re linked to
:: Do you care at all about the media sections? Small Screen / Big Screen / Books / Music? Books yes, the rest, not really
:: If my blogroll disappeared, or moved to a different page, would you notice? Would you care? ABSOLUTELY! I like it here. 🙂
On my own blog I use my side bars a lot, they’re my spring board …
I read people’s sidebars when they’re new to me – to see if there’s an “About Me” section or whatever. Other than that? Don’t look at ’em.
I hardly ever post normal entries on my blog anymore, but I do a lot of remainder/sidebar blogging lately. I think Tom Coates called it “microcontent voting,” a way to pass on my opinions about interesting or significant links that I’ve come across. If people who know me want to see what I’ve been reading, they can flip through those to see what’s going through my head. And thanks to Blogdex/Daypop/et al, those links allow me to “vote” for the stories I think people should look at.
A lot of the RSS reading I am doing lately is from other peoples’ sideblogs or remaindered/leftover links. That said, I am also definitely interested in what other blogs people are linking to. I like the way you list only a few out of your humongous blogroll on the front page. For someone like you who gets a huge amount of traffic, it’d be a shame not to be able to share some of your favorite links with incoming visitors. And I know my life would be just that much gloomier if I never got any lost BPC visitors wandering over to my site — my referrer log would dwindle down to nothing.
Do you ever look at my sidebar at all? Yes
What sections in my sidebar do you use? Two Bakers Dozen
Do you care at all about the media sections? Small Screen / Big Screen / Books / Music? Well I guess I look at them – cuz I’m always wondering when they will change, I do see you have moved ya-ya’s from nightstand->recent. If they were gone I would miss them though.
If my blogroll disappeared, or moved to a different page, would you notice? Would you care? I would notice, I don’t think I would care much. I really do like your random blogroll though – yours is one of the few that I do look at because it is always different. Your all over the place finding new far away places I would never find on my own – cuz they are not linked from every other place.
I think ones answer will really vary with how long one has been reading the blog. I seem to always check out the side-bar items when it’s a fresh find – but once it has become a habit you really do not pay attention to those items. Unless it’s a side-bar blog you have going like barkingmike mentions.
Which is how I feel you 2dz is – so please keep it 🙂
Do you ever look at my sidebar at all? – Occationally
What sections in my sidebar do you use? – Webrings, when I’m surfing them.
Do you care at all about the media sections? Small Screen / Big Screen / Books / Music? – I really don’t pay attention to it.
If my blogroll disappeared, or moved to a different page, would you notice? Would you care? – I would probably notice.
I wish I had the ablility to have a collapsible script for my sidebar like the collapsible script that’s out there for MT entries. That way, I can have every thing I want on my scrollbar but not force reader to see it unless they want to see it and without them having to load another page.
I considered doing that Shawn (there are scripts out there for it I believe) but part of the goal was to cut the size down, making the site load faster. When you use that script, everything is still there and loaded – it’s just hidden from view.
I suspect there will be a new skin by the weekend without a sidebar at all…
:: Do you ever look at my sidebar at all?
Occasionally.
:: What sections in my sidebar do you use?
I read the “about” the first time. Like the new Cookie Crumbs bit. I really only read the sidebar bits that are above the fold…
:: Do you care at all about the media sections? Small Screen / Big Screen / Books / Music?
I am interested in the media stuff, but they’re so far down the page I usually forget about them.
:: If my blogroll disappeared, or moved to a different page, would you notice? Would you care?
No harm in a separate page, so long as there was a link for me to snoop about there, when I was in a snooping mood. 🙂
Ya know, I’m glad you asked this question … I almost never look at sidebars anymore because they’re usually static. I only look at them if I know the daily links change, kinda like what Anil has going on. I was going to implement a “just links” feed like that … but laziness took over. Every once in a while though, I’d surf through your blogroll. The media sections I glance at once every 10 visits. *smile*
I rarely look at much in a sidebar. I have been debating myself whether or not to just cut it down to a few links and webrings of course. I think I will now that I am thinking about it right now. LOL
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