Width of a Blog - is 800x600 not so important?

[Tart]

I'll have you know mine is just barely over (was too lazy to adjust it those last few pixels)
Seriously though, many blogs are designed to have a flexible width so that they look decent on 800 and up (although perhaps a bit bare at larger resolutions) I usually try to go that route myself and probably will with the new theme I'm working on.
Many mainstream blogs I've come across are either very narrow or adjust to fit so I think perhaps the larger size on adult blogs might be because most of us have bigger screens, and we're also trying to fit alot more images/ads etc on the page.
Personally I would go with a flexible width with the small end being 800, because then it will look decent to most surfers.

[Preacher]

Well, I'm not all that concerned about the 800x600 rule even on my LL, which I know puts me in the rare minority, but that's just how I am. As long as it's close and people with a generally acceptable monitor can view the page in a non-full sized window I'm happy.

When I rebuilt Depraved World in wordpress, I knew I wanted a 3 column scheme similiar to my old style blog and my linklist. It gives me a place to add friend's and blog links without losing good placement area's for my sponsor links. And trust me, to get the columns sitting right and main body to expand for my buddy's that use a 24" monitor and view web pages maximized took a bit of doing.

The cool thing about blogs is that for the most part, you are not required to have any set of rules like you are with a free site. So you can link to what you want, build it how you want, and say what you want in it. In some ways that is a positive thing as it gives you a great deal of freedom. Yet at times, it's easier to be constrained, however strange that sounds.

Good luck Simon!

[walrus]

I fall pretty much into the same category here as the preacher. Sticking to a hard 800 wide wasnt as big of a concern as getting the three columns in with enough width to be able to actually use the left and right side but maintain a respectable amount of space for the actual text.

That having been said...it's now going to bug the shit out of me till I get home tonight cause I noticed that the right side bar and the right edge of the grapic are a few px off. Damn!

[Boogie]

[quote=walrus]I fall pretty much into the same category here as the preacher. Sticking to a hard 800 wide wasnt as big of a concern as getting the three columns in with enough width to be able to actually use the left and right side but maintain a respectable amount of space for the actual text.
[quote]

thirded