So here's the deal, I was against them when they were put in however since they have been here a while I have mixed feelings on them. A lot of them are nonsense but there are some that generate some interesting discussion, or are interesting to go read the story.
Dan provides a good way of seeing new posts without getting frustrated by them. I may see about trying to move them to their own forum and keep them from showing up as new posts, tone them down, or get rid of them all together, but I haven't yet decided.
The space they take up is insignificant.