wretchard,

Regardless of how you alter or arrange your page, someone is bound to find that the changes some like others have a problem with. You cannot and will not please everyone. There are positives and negatives to every change, regardless.

For my part, since I wear bifocals, I tend to favor the print size you have now. It’s not too big and not too small. Just right. I am not distracted by the other items on the page. At the old site you had some of those too. I didn’t mind them and sometimes it’s nice to know who your sponsors are. If they are selling something I may be interested in, I may just give them my business.

I think most of us today are used to web pages that have these elements. Change is inevitable and people can adapt. The most important thing is that the site works for you and makes financial sense for you. If there are few complaints, then you are ahead of the game.