LDS_forever says she does not use it either. I guess the idea behind this was mostly for New Members who are always saying they cannot find stuff, for those making transitions from other sites were they are accustomed to a bottom bar with easy to click info and lastly a way to broadcast relevant information immediately - for instance "Valentine's Talk". What I may have to do is come up with a smaller version that can act like a turn off / on segment of the site, but the problem is the coding involved and the effect it has on various browsers. Just getting this to be cross browser compatible was murder in itself.
You know what will be kind of cool, being able to customize it with a little picture you want like a photo of your family or pet or something like that. I like the new bookmark button since I can find some of my more active threads faster.
That might be something nice as the Member can keep a picture of a loved one close to them while browsing, but the main problem with that is the size and uploading it with the right specifications. The only way I can pull it off is by having it as a Forum Bank feature where I do it for you.
Small Updates
Some people tried to click links on pages while their mouse pointer was within the space of the Bottom Bar but could not do so. The reason for this is the Bottom Bar has transparent areas that shows the page content but it does not mean it is clickable. I'm 'helping' that by putting lines that cover some of the pages where the Bottom Bar is, therefore Users should see this and try to scroll so the link is above the lines in order to click.
I've actually used the bottom bars, floating and not, on occasion, recently, and admit they are handy, but just not terribly intuitive or memorable, as I, like a lot of people, have developed "banner and peripheral blindess", where you intentionally but unconsciously avoid paying attention to things that strike you as slightly out-of-place or not obviously part of the page's theme, because those kinds of things are traditionally ad banners.
I agree with you about the 'blindness', hence now and again we try to change things around to get people to visit other parts of our Community or sister sites. The Bottom Bar is actually new and may help someone out there, but it also does many other things that are good for the site.