One thing I’m surprised at every few months is how few good WordPress themes there are without sidebars, or at least with fully customizable content within the sidebar.
To me, sidebars with lots of internal links are a sign of pretentiousness and inflated ego. And that’s pretty much it.
I’m going to use my own blog as an example. Let’s pretend it was written by a guy named Steve (this isn’t imagination) who is not me (and this part is):
If I was visiting Steve’s blog for the first time, I’m probably there because someone linked me to a specific article on it. Or maybe I found something with a Google search. If I like what I see, maybe I’ll read a couple extra articles. Maybe I’ll click the subscribe link. Maybe I’ll post some venom-filled, ignorant accusations in the comments.1
But being able to view all the posts Steve made in February 2005? Utterly without value. I just don’t care. I’m never going to click that link and say to myself “Gosh, I wonder what this Steve guy posted on February 26, 2005?” Not gonna happen. I may search for a specific topic such as Palm, if I think Steve may have written on the topic and I’m interested in what Steve had to say. That’s what the search tool is for, after all.
See all that crap beside your blog? Just cut it out. We don’t care.
I’ll admit my current appearance doesn’t do this. View this post as an apology for the cluttered sidebar of the current theme. I’ll work on it. I wasn’t interested in putting effort into the theme I had, and the Kubrick theme is just too “whoops, I didn’t set up my blog yet” in appearance. This was just my pick for “what looks the least like ass?” on short notice.
- Okay, I won’t do that. [↩]