Not sure if this applies to anyone here but if it helps even one person then this thread is worth it.
If you purchased the Dark Effect WP theme a few months back, like I did, and recently upgraded your WP to the latest version 2.8.4 you will notice your theme is out of whack and the right sidebar is missing.
Well, it took a few hours of fiddling around but I found the cause of the problem as well as the solution to this. Simply go to edit your file dynamic_sidebar.php in the theme folder. You will want to remove the following code near the top
PHP Code:
<?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')
|| !dynamic_sidebar(1) ) : ?>
trust me, you don't need this code. Now, near the bottom of the page you simply need to remove the following code
PHP Code:
<?php endif; ?>
...once you do this your theme will function normally again and your sidebar will look exactly like it did before upgrading