Replace sidebar with another one
 

I'm curious if any of you have replaced the sidebar with something else that is stylish and nice. My main concern is that:

(1) There is no easy/good way to make sure that the stylebar is always open and visible all the time, especially with a forum that has been running and some of the users having already closed it.

(2) There is a javascript file that is required for its operation and, to be quite honest, it is extra bloat that can slow down the forum. Do we really need this sidebar that badly? Not sure.

(3) I haven't yet seen anyone create a truly effective sidebar, mostly skyscraper banners, but I think it could be done nicely and effectively. Would even pay for someone to do something nice for our site. I also think that you could possibly still install products (like last post) without the sidebar javascript...

1) You can permanantely show the sidebar by disabling the collapse feature.
2) Sidebar is totally optional, i think it uses YUI framework cant be sure the JS you saw might not only be for sidebar could be a framework which connects to many other things.
3) Possibilities are certainly, you can custom mod sidebar and add some stunning HTML static elements, depends on vision. But you can obviously lead by example and set standards urself than look for inspiration.