User blog comment:Susanolivia/Beta Wrap-up/@comment-65179-20101005224710

My main concern didn't even get a mention in this, and I know it's shared by a great many people. It has less to do with the conversion to fixed width (there's nothing inherently wrong with a fixed width layout).

It has everything to do with the 33% of the page being devoted to a sidebar. A sidebar with limited amount of usability and practicality on our Wiki. I'd love to see this waste of space that should be going to content reduced to somewhere around 20-25% of the width if it stays at all.

A better solution would be to float a div on the right with that advertisement in it so that it displaces only a section of text, not forces the full text column smaller. On longer pages this would be essential, as on longer pages the sidebar will just be empty, wasted space once the sidebar content has played out. And for many wikis the only "useful" sidebar content will be the advertisement that pays for the place.