I noticed something with the "trending topics" which explains why I'm still seeing them even though when they're off (which I mentioned earlier). When I click "forum" from the FT homepage it directs to
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum however when I click on "forum" from anywhere in the forum itself it directs to
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trending.php which always displays the trending forum threads crap regardless of my settings, so now when I'm in the forum and want to view the forum as a whole it requires an extra click back to the FT homepage