Side Bars: Yes or No

[Nomad]

I do not have side bars on my forums, however, I use sidebars on my blogs. On my blogs, I use sidebars for recent posts, popular posts, recent comments, etc. Do you side bars on your site (blogs and forums). What do you use sidebars for? I mean what type of content do you display on your sidebars?

 

[Empire]

It would be so odd to not have a sidebar on forums It displays even more information to members so why not.

 

[kensonplays]

I keep sidebars on the board index, blogs, and some other pages, but on certain pages I like to disable them, like thread view and such. I'm looking into ways to hide the sidebars on all pages inside a specific page node on XF. So all pages as a sub-node get included. Not sure exactly how I'll do that, but eventually I'll figure it out!

But I do agree, not having sidebars at all does feel weird, since I was using WordPress for years and years and it had sidebars globally. Removing them completely would feel odd, but in certain instances, it makes sense to hide em (like thread view, mentioned earlier).

 

[Cory]

I don't use a sidebar on my current forum, I feel it would take up more room than needed and any content needed in the sidebar can usually be found in the header or footer of the board, so I don't see it as a necessity.

 

[veloman]

I don't use side bars because they don't display on mobiles - so it seems a little pointless to have them these days. I like them on desktops if they're done right, but I've seen plenty of forums with ugly, cluttered sidebars.

I don't use a sidebar on my current forum, I feel it would take up more room than needed and any content needed in the sidebar can usually be found in the header or footer of the board, so I don't see it as a necessity.

I put most of my stuff in headers or footers too, or just hide them on other pages!

 

[Kyng]

Not really a fan, TBH - just because it makes it harder to design for mobile. (And TBH, all the things that would go in a sidebar work just as well in the header or footer IMO)

 

[Ravenfreak]

I don't mind having sidebars, it's a good way to keep up with what's trending on a forum and to keep an eye out on the activity as well. I often prefer to have them on one side only though, it makes it easier to keep an eye out on what's going on.

 

[Tracy]

I don't use side bars because they don't display on mobiles

Yes and no.. if done correctly, they don't "display" on the normal screen, but they are still available to be seen, as an example in Bolt via the hamburger bar.
On a lot of my pages they are displayed... like my Forum index....
But for my "night vision" style, I disabled the ones that show images (latest gallery images, articles and such) and only display the most recent users and the online members.

And TBH, all the things that would go in a sidebar work just as well in the header or footer IMO

And... nope.

Displaying something like this fits better into the sidebar instead of the head or footer... footer it's to easy to miss... head, it pushes the forum index down.

I've played with multiple placements... and they simply look better in the sidebar.

 

[Reverie]

I think it depends on the niche a bit too. I know for general forums it isn’t always necessary but I think it can be a nice touch.

Now a days the sidebars on like xenforo look good… but the older software sometimes the coded sidebar did not look so great.

 

[Empire]

Having them helps members I say as there is more information to have, from DIscord, Feeds, Latest stats, and even images to be displayed from other pages. Then again with me I'm used to having it on the right, not just on my own site but every site that has it

 

[Cory]

Now that it was mentioned above, I don't mind sidebars that can be collapsed and expanded and it will remember your choice. That way, users can browse your forum the way they wish and if they feel they don't need to see the additional information in the sidebar, they can simply collapse it. That could be useful for small resolutions where people want to see more of the actual contents of the board rather than the sidebar.

 

[Spartan]

I don’t really use them, on mobile it’s to clutter and I use my phone a lot. Collapsible is the way to go though if you are gonna do. More fitting for blogs then forums imo but can be useful if done right on both.

 

[Uncrowned]

I like them, but they need to auto hide on mobile devices. With larger displays and wider displays becoming more and more common, not having one is almost lost space in some way.

 

[ladyquack]

when my forum was on jcink, we tried using a topbar but it just didn't work out for us. when we made the switch back to smf, we also went back to using a sidebar.

 

[Aaron]

I like a sidebar on a blog but not too much of a fan of a sidebar on a forum.

 

[V0RT3X]

I like them, but they need to auto hide on mobile devices.

If your theme is well coded and responsive, the sidebar will be displayed below the actual content.

 

[Empire]

I like a sidebar on a blog but not too much of a fan of a sidebar on a forum.

Well most FOurms do have them anyway but doesn't stop you using them

 

[Uncrowned]

If your theme is well coded and responsive, the sidebar will be displayed below the actual content.

This is a actually an approach that I personally greatly dislike as it just extends the page scrolling way too much.

 

[Carlos]

I like them, but they need to auto hide on mobile devices. With larger displays and wider displays becoming more and more common, not having one is almost lost space in some way.

I sort of agree here. I have a 55' inch TV as a monitor for my computer, I hate, loathe websites with wide wrappers (they're called content containers on xenForo 2), I like sidebars because it makes the content look like a magazine, and not some paper that you'd need to go from one end of the paper to the other. What I don't like is stats/info in header "side bars." (LIke here, there's a header, most websites have navigation icons that give you either the stats, members, share, or a different bar.)

That being said, I agree that there should be a hide feature, but not "automatic" but a user-selectable "x" button, and is only displayable on the user's account. With an option for unregistered to have the option, too.

My setup would be: User can collapse the sidebar as they wish, but unregistered users can't. Gotta get the ad monies, bro.

If your theme is well coded and responsive, the sidebar will be displayed below the actual content.

My skins is like that.

 

[Sinistra]

I have sidebars on my community. I feel they help get content read, take a "recent topics" block you can set how many topics show up this helps your community members find content that they wouldn't find elsewhere