Donk or not?

Read so many threads about "donks" betting, raising, or calling with questionable hands early in tourneys and I want to know the difference between early and later. Entered a freeroll today and was 249th out of 12,000(PokerStars). Folded hand and two went all in ,one had J-3 off and won the pot against AK suited. Now I know it's a freeroll but if they had played that hand earlier would'nt everyone have jumped their ship? Explain the difference?

Honestly I think sometimes people just dont care. It could be a tournament thing too, with so many people to get through, you gotta get lucky sometimes. And also, who went all in first and what were their stack sizes. Risking all your chips on junk is a total donk move early on unless you really have a read on your opponents, and think they're gonna fold. All in preflop is usually a steal play, cause you really dont want to be called, unless you have a monster (which can still be cracked). Also, yes it is a freeroll. Would someone risk an all in w/j3 off if they just payed 10K to play or if they were in a cash game... yes, if you're the one making the bet, sure...but calling an all in pf with j3 off is just stupid, unless of course your stack was huge and the bettor was a small stack.

There is no need to waste ur whole stack in just one hand when ure opponent is ahead... Instead if it would be at the later part of the tourney J3 call would sound great if AK guy had so small stack compared to the one J3 had.

Have to say I've probably open shoved j3o before, but probably w 4-5 bb's and folded to me in cutoff. BUT...I'm not usually stuck w 4-5 bb's, so I may be wrong

J-3 off shove has to be seen in context. Could be someone who was short just hoping no one will call and/or to get lucky. Could be a big stack bully. Or it could be someone who built his chip stack that way with random shoves every X hands which had not been called while you were at his table. Also fits with certain hyper-agressive players strategies. Those moves tend to fit well in both the true "donk" category as well as with some really crafty players. True, you can lose when someone calls your shove with a big hand. On the other hand, you are far more likely to get a call when you have your own monster and shove because others think you play LAG all the time.
That is the one area I want to improve my game. I would like to get better with shifting gears into a sometimes LAG mode.