Every time I see “j.f.m.a.m.j.j.a.s.o.n.d” in the sidebar of a blog, I have to stop and think about what it means. Every time. It takes me a few seconds, because all I see is “Jason” in the middle, and I don’t get what the rest of it is for. Then I finally figure out that it’s the initials of the months. It bugs me.
While I’m talking about what bothers me in sidebars, I hate Zonkboards. I hate them with a passion. They cause such an incredible lag time on sites loading. If you have to use them, could you skin your site and have a “Zonkfree” version? And an RSS feed with comments so I can read your site in NewzCrawler? Pretty please? I love all of you – I just hate the damn Zonkboards.
This post dedicated to Matt, who I made a commitment to, promising I would continue my Zonkfree campaign.
30 replies on “What? What Huh?”
do i get bonus points for not having a zonk board, or the dreaded jfma…thing?
😉
okay, i’ll buy you a margarita, if that helps…
heh
FINALLY! I was beginning to wonder if I was the only person who thought that zonkboards were just lag-tools … 😉 I honestly don’t even care for them that much …
Yes! Yes! Bonus points for you. But doesn’t that mean I should buy you a Tecate? 😉
*lol* I run across the initials every time I’m at Kymberlie’s site and, even KNOWING that they’re there, it still gives me pause:)
For you, anything… note to self… new skin – no zonkboard.
What the hell is a zonkboard?
Zonkboards are the bane of my existance. No, no, ok … they are the tag boards that you see in the sidebar of some sites. Since they are hosted on another server, you have to deal with lag time while they load.
I hate those too!
I am too daft yet to figure out how to do the RSS feed.
*slinks away feeling dumb*
“What’s a zonkboard?”
“It’s a tag board.”
What’s a tag board?
Well, I don’t want to point to someone’s site and say “see! they have one!” (Although Gingersmack pointed out herself up above that she does.) They are script boxes with rolling threads – like a mini chat room in your sidebar. To leave a comment on someone’s zonkboard, you just fill in your name and info, type what you want, hit submit. Chatter going back and forth, almost always which could just be in comments on a blog and not slow the site down.
You can see what a zonkboard is on their site.
I couldn’t handle having one hosted on another server. I finally ended up getting a PA Box and love it. It’s simple to configure and use and doesn’t lag the sites down. It’s all PHP!
I have a love/hate relationship with those things. You may notice that it comes and goes with time on my blog… I think I’m going to make it a pop-up window again, because yes, the lag that it causes just KILLS.
Though I’m pro-blog widgets of all kinds, I’m anti-Zonk, in part because I don’t see the point. It’s another way to say “Hi” without really adding meaningful content – and I’m all about meaningful content! Content and smilies, baby!
Good point. I wondered what was making my site load so slowly. Am I the only person who thinks blogrolls make it load slower too?
I hate zonkboards too. Why would somebody need one if they already have a comment-enabled blog? (like MT) You can keep up with my weblog by reading the RSS feed at http://www.trommetter.org/log/index.xml
Maybe if the concept was carried out on a local script, it wouldn’t be so bad. They annoy me personally, but I could see how they would be of value to a site owner. Keep the flame alive Christine!
ok, i’ll put myself out there as one who has a zonkboard. i like it. i have found that sometimes people are more likely to leave a greeting there then to comment on a post. it gives them another option. and personally, if it facilitates more communication then i’m all for it – no matter who’s hosting it. yeah, i’d rather host it myself but for this one i weighed the ease of a turn-key against my time in setting it up – and the simple way won.
and really, i see the load time on blogrolling is worse than my board – so much so that i’ve considered doing without it. what about this? if everyone is upset about zonkboards, why aren’t they about other secondary hosted widgets?
is my having a zonkboard really ruining your blogging experience? is this that big a deal?
No, I wouldn’t say they are ruining my blogging experience. I would say that when I was annoyed by them last night, they were loading slowly everywhere I went. So I ranted about something I had previously held in for months.
I haven’t noticed a site lag from Blogrolling, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t one. I will definitely keep an eye on that.
My main problem with tag boards is that they keep reloading the page every X seconds. It’s hard to read a long blog entry when the page keeps reloading. And on dial-up it can take several seconds for bloated websites to reload. Sometimes I’ll get fed up and just surf on.
I haven’t put my zonkboard back on my site yet but I still like them. I still haven’t got the hang of this newsreader stuff though
I’ll agree! Zonkboards are the minions of Satan!
I admit it…I have a Zonkboard. But I have been considering either getting rid of it altogether, or placing it in a pop-up window…which would only open if the user chooses to click on it.
My beef with it is that when the Zonkboard site goes down, it makes it look as if my blog is down, too. Pain in the ass!
damn, i just reread what i wroteranted last night. note the time too – 1:32am. i gotta learn to just go to bed when i’m tired and not continue to surf, sorry if i came off a little harsh…
… now that I have an RSS feed, what do I do with it? … but I have to say I like my Zonkboard, sorry. 🙂
i love my zonkboard. 😛 thpppt.
I opted for a non-Zonk shoutbox, called Oxyshout. I’ve got it set up so that you see it, by default, in my main page, but so that you can also open up an alternate pop-up window containing the comments so that you can keep it open while viewing other sites.
Pretty worthless with my low hit count, but it’s fun to play with little widgets like that.
*G*
Down With ZonkBoards! Stone the Zonks!
🙂 give you an idea of my opinion? 😀
hy, everyone! I’ making a one small site, and I don’t want a chat like a zonkboard… Everybody have zonkboard! does anyone now for some other mini-chat? (no ZonkBoard, no Tag-board)
please, answer me! tnx
RSS – at last
I worked out how to add a blog to Newzcrawler by accident. I read a post on Big Pink Cookie and decided to give Newscrawler another go. I looked at the instructions, couldn’t figure out how to add my own…
RSS – at last
I worked out how to add a blog to Newzcrawler by accident. I read a post on Big Pink Cookie and decided to give Newzcrawler another go. I looked at the instructions, couldn’t figure out how to add my own…