Comments on: I want a WidgetBlocker

By: A Pownce Review | www.michaellundberg.com

A Pownce Review | www.michaellundberg.com — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 21:35:30 +0000

[...] of them, but I’ll assume that it’s true. After all, it’s not an uncommon opinion. Others have railed on blog badges, but I don’t see the harm in trying to enrich your site with blog [...]

By: Do you like widgets on people's web sites? - MacNN Forums

Do you like widgets on people's web sites? - MacNN Forums — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:09:16 +0000

[...] Jeremy Toeman wrote on his blog recently that he doesn’t like all the crap people have on their blog. I agree, to a point. I think that in this day and age it’s nice to have a place where people can share parts of their lives that they want to make public, and I never had any slowdowns with pages. What are your thoughts on this? I want a WidgetBlocker � Jeremy Toeman’s LIVEdigitally [...]

By: Jeremy Toeman

Jeremy Toeman — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:59:21 +0000

Jennifer – I think you’ve pretty much made my point for me. If you want to view all the little badges and such, you don’t have to use said WidgetBlocker. I, on the other hand, am not interested in these things, and would choose to use it. While I very much think these addons tend to clutter and distract from a blog, its up to the individual to make their choice…

Adam – wouldn’t a link to their Flickr page suffice? And again, you could choose to use WidgetBlocker and allow certain widgets, such as Flickr. Remember, my WidgetBlocker would have killer UI and options for making such selections.

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:55:58 +0000

I have a widgetblocker already: Platypus for Greasemonkey. Tidies everything up just dandy, giving me precisely the version of a page I want. Combined with Adblock, I see very little I don’t want to see.

Your rant’s a little over the top, imo… If you don’t know a person’s Flickr address, for example, how would you go straight to Flickr to see their photos? I think instead of a widgetblocker, one really needs a widgetrenicer…something to put manners and decorum and taste into widgets that are overblown, set to outlandish sizes, or otherwise exhibit unnecessarily annoying behaviour.

Otherwise, I agree with the basic sentiment of your post, but I don’t know that I’d personally actually go quite as far as you apparently want to and suggest is necessary.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:29:43 +0000

agree this stuff does slow down the load time, but… some of us are blogging for our friends, who live in different states and different countries and who DO want to know what we are reading and listening too (although I don’t have lastFM on my site). I always check out what my favorite bloggers are thinking about via their sidebar. I have gotten some great reading, craft, food, vacation, non-profits to support, ideas from the sidebar widgets and whatnot. AND I have discovered quite a few new blogs that I really like by following the recent readers showing up on the blogs that I already read. LOVE the vacation pictures and, especially if I am reading a blog that is in a state/country I will soon be visiting, want to know the weather. Maybe some of us are just a little more interested in the person behind the blog and can wait for the page to load? : )

By: JoshSHill

JoshSHill — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 22:47:54 +0000

I use AdBlock Plus too, and you get a little block option above most widgets… I love it, I am getting to a point where I hardly see any flashy ads or widgets I don’t want too!

By: Joe C

Joe C — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 22:00:46 +0000

Excellent points. One of the reason that we have resisted the clutter in the first place, and while the draw of making an extra $20 a month in Google Adsense is tempting, not having clutter wound up being more important.

By: Ed Kohler

Ed Kohler — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:57:55 +0000

I think you’re onto something here. The load times for external .js files can be debilitating. This includes on-site functionality such as Anarchy player, GeoRSS and other plug-ins that load on every page whether they’re needed or not.