I’m not sure whether the phrase “flying low without a license” translates beyond the shores of the British Isles. Nevertheless, it is an expression one gent might remark to another when he spots that said gent has failed to fasten the fly buttons on his 501s or the zipper on his pantaloons and is in danger of an embarrassing public display.

Across the blogosphere one might say instead, “your widgets are showing”. As a gent, I’d be discrete in letting a fellow blogger know that there is potential for virtual fallout.

However, I spotted a little box, in a prominent place on the blog of a new Twitter follower:

This section is widgetized. If you would like to add content to this section, you may do so by using the Widgets panel from within your WordPress Admin Dashboard. This Widget Section is called “Skinny Right Sidebar”

I, of course, immediately alerted the blogger to the issue, off piste, as it were. Hopefully, he’s zipping up right now.

I was curious as to whether other bloggers might be displaying their widgets similarly and so Googled that phrase.

43,000 hits! No Googlewhackblatt this.

I suspect they’re all using the WordPress theme Flexxprofessional, as was the original blog, but a similar problem can arise with other themes and other blogs. As with ones flies, it is always wise to double check that nothing is showing that ought not to be showing before going public.

Are your widgets showing? I hope mine are not, but if they ever were, I’d hope you’d let me know that low flying license had expired!