Yeah man!I'm not gonna win any pals by expressing this sentiment but here goes....
It's a thing that helps slow down the page loading in your browser. Animated ones oughta be banned outright.
And yes I have a block on them all, but it still slows things while my browser parses the page.
Oh and signature lines & vanity pics that take half or more of my screen, make me thankful for the option to turn them off.
If you're not a sponsor, Then it's excess clutter that belongs on your profile page.
So are you going to give yourself one?