Do you use the sidebar on this site? You know, all those widgets and links down the right-hand column? I suspect that most web users don’t even notice sidebars these days, especially the kind that are stuffed with ads, at least the sidebar on this site isn’t like that, right?

Well, I was thinking of an experiment, a way to rebuild Sciencetext with a minimalist wordpress theme that would dump the sidebar, so I asked for opinions on, you guessed it, twitter.

First to respond was @microbeworld who said a blog without a sidebar was, “like a hug without a squeeze.” He added that “You need that real estate for networking widgets, links, ads, etc.” A tongue-in-cheek response from @Fracture98 echoed the sentiment “Is it…is it even possible?! I think you’re dabbling in powers best left undabbled…” I realized he was responding in jest but pushed him for a serious answer and asked whether he would ever switch from a sidebar to a footer with the widgets instead. “Sidebar’s are popular because they work,” he added, “Footers are rarely seen.” But, that said he also conceded that it is up to the individual blogger to innovate.

@lizscherer was adamant that her blog at least would also have a sidebar otherwise, “that would be too restrictive for me,” she revealed. As to visiting other sites, “I don’t want to scroll down to a footer on a blog,” she said, which is fair comment. There is the advantage that a footer is at the foot of a post and might provide readers with a springboard to other parts of a site, however.

@ommachi, however, thought it was worth a test “I tried it for some months successfully; it gives a website feel to a blog,” he said. However, he eventually concluded that concluded, “a better way is to have single posts without a sidebar, but other pages with one to help navigation; top and bottom navigation helps too.” @hacool asserted that although a sidebar may not be essential. “If you have some sort of navigation in the header you could probably do a blog without a sidebar,” she said, “I wouldn’t go navless though.”

Later, @Fracture98 suggested that one should “try pruning the sidebar relentlessly. Dump anything that doesn’t specifically relate to content. Sidebars tend to collect flotsam.” I then pushed for what the minimal sidebar should contain and @TaviGreiner suggested that would be, “Blogroll and archive”, neither of which are present in the traditional sense in the Sciencetext sidebar anyway. So, I asked for more on that idea, “Recent posts = archive (ultimately) and Comments could suffice for Contact … Definitely, and RSS button should be there,” @TaviGreiner added.

So, after a flurry of tweets and direct messages (DM), I’m actually not really any closer to a decision as to whether to send Sciencetext minimal by ditching the sidebar. @ommachi again suggested experimenting on individual pages because a blog post without a sidebar could be very intense. But, @hacool had the last word, however, “I think you could get away with it, you can already get to most things from the header anyway,” she said, but the niggling feeling remains that a blog without a sidebar would be like a hug without a squeeze.