Having the option to turn them off would indeed be very nice, but I don't think they should get rid of them entirely in case people don't hang around the website as much as they do the actual chat program. (Newbies, for example. I know I didn't go on the site much at first since I didn't know what was around there. Of course... that was like, two years ago, so I can't quite speak for the newbies nowadays. :snicker:)
But I've also thought it would be nice to turn off those pesky shoutouts. So, as long as it would be optional, I'm all for it.