I can understand the point here, but I think things are tolerable as-is. I dealt with back-tracking and reading all the posts I was interested on the previous pages, even from 48kbps internet. And it's rare enough that we get sponsors, only happens twice a year and we should give them some good attention.
I could appreciate an algorithm to not put one-word or short posts as high on the Recent Topics, but we don't have that big of an issue with (legitimate members) spam so there's not much reason to add confusing code or do anything complex to the system.
Think of it as advertising. But instead of that silly Applebee's commercial, it's an ad that doesn't pop up every 15 minutes, and is actually relevant. And your reward for acknowledging and negotiating through it is amazing sponsorships. I'd deal with commercials much more, if they offered me legitimately free prizes!
As for casual checkers of the site, I think (sadly) we have some people that come and post regularly, and others that won't. I know I disappear sometimes, but I would check more if I had the internet and fancy phones some others have. To those that don't bother to log in while lurking the forums on their high-speed internet and phones, I say man up and get involved. The more member activity, the more we can get these sponsors and support, and grow LanOC.
But I wouldn't mind a page that contains all the facebook links for the sponsors. But things work as is.
"You should the forums"
Better words never said.
I know I will be hitting up the facebook pages as well! 
