I dislike mini calendars as a regular navigation element

Disclaimer: Mini calendars are great for event, time-sensitive type of posts. I'm cool with that usage, jelly bean. And with the disclaimer out of the way, let me tell you why mini-calendars that one so often sees in left / right columns to access current updates suck as a navigation device. Granted, this is a personal opinion; but it's the only one that matters. So read on, chuckle heads.

What are you clicking on?

My main issue with these mini calendars is you have no idea what you'll get when you click a date. Let's say you visit a site maintained by one person posting lots of crap; or far worse a site like this with multiple people posting crap. How do you know if the day link in that mini calendar you're about to click isn't when they lost their marbles and went insane? You don't. 

Example:

One day, like every day, you're surfing Billy Bob Robert-Von-Canjun's cuisine site, hoping to see the newest way to serve up dead alligator. "Oh! There's a new update today because today's mini calendar square is highlighted... Yay!!!", you think. WRONG! 

You click the day link in the mini calendar only to find yourself with a plethora of posts Billy Bob made that day when he decided to go vegan (and insane). Now you're presented with a list of posts about how to marinate charred yams in grape seed extract along side broiled swamp grass. All served in an alligator skull. 

Think that's bad? There was a designer who went ape-shit one night, and instead of posting design related topics, went on to write 30 posts IN ONE NIGHT about pink lollipops and the proper way to organize HIS bedazzled underwear. Try and un-forget that.

The Better Way

There's a time and place for mini calendars; one of which I mentioned in my disclaimer above. However, if you need to display recent / archived content, why not just do it in a happy listing page, or block; all done up with titles, teaser text and post dates as user can quickly scan through? And I know some of you are saying, "But Bret, you can do a mini popup if someone mouses over a date in the mini calendar that would show titles of posts for that day." 

Yea... tell that to the poor soul who moused-over Oct 13, 2008 on Billy Bob's mini calendar, as the mini popup truncated titles to make room for design. It listed the most tasty-sounding recipe ever: "Tater tot foie gras on...", or what one would think. Unfortunately, it lead to a post about "How one bedazzles a thong". 

There's no medical procedure to remove that post from one's head. None.

* Editors note: This post was prompted by Stu asking for a mini-calendar navigation for the Blog section. Answer's still no Stu, because we never know when Cort's going to get a Bedazzler.