Holy fucking Jesus guys.
I come back from the weekend and I have a billion journals of people bitching about the banner.
And then a billion more about people bitching about people bitching about the journals.
...Though I guess I'm guilty of the second.

Here's a little secret that I do with a good 50%-75% of FA's banners.

1. Right click the banner.
2. Adblock plus: Block Image.
3. Click the first radio button.
4. Click the Add filter button.
5. Never see a banner until the next one.

Fuck, you can even click the second radio button and never see a banner ever.
I also do this with a good 10%-25% of user icons.

Both Firefox and Chrome have adblock, I know for sure.
Most other browsers probably have some equivalent.