I searched through these forums and was unable to find how you can turn this option off, or remove it.
any help is greatly appreciated.
Which 'Topic Summary' are you referring to?
(https://www.simplemachines.org/community/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fd-clan.clutchkill.com%2Fimages%2Ftopics.JPG&hash=7b903b7be4d0055c71e2fa64847e14b84f2f2883)
that one
That is a mod that you have installed. You can turn it off, by uninstalling it through the package manager.