How can I put HTML into the sidebar/sidepaenl? There's nothing in the admin dashboard that lets me customize what's in the sidebar. I just need to put in a few static links and a flickr photo stream.
Use the "Messages" feature. You can put boxes in the side panel that way. You can choose how you want them to appear and they accept HTML.
Check out my forums for an example. The links to the other areas of my site ("Navigation") are done in this way. Works like a charm and it's built into Vanilla.
@Raize: I separate announcements from discussions via my theme. I got the idea and example code from the Joie theme in the addons section of the site. It's in the views part of the theme that defines that discussions list.
The code of interest is views/discussions/discussions.php. If you add that to your theme (in the proper hierarchy), it should start doing the split like mine.
Comments
Use the "Messages" feature. You can put boxes in the side panel that way. You can choose how you want them to appear and they accept HTML.
Check out my forums for an example. The links to the other areas of my site ("Navigation") are done in this way. Works like a charm and it's built into Vanilla.
I like how you sepereated Announcements from Discussions as well, any tips on accomplishing that?
http://vanillaforums.org/addon/573/joie
The code of interest is views/discussions/discussions.php. If you add that to your theme (in the proper hierarchy), it should start doing the split like mine.