The safety these icons potentially supply is nice to have, but there are many instances where they make it very difficult to read an article. They often completely obscure the word following the link, and when you series of short links all in a row, you can’t even see what you might be able to click on after the first link.
This link, in particular, if the checkmarks show up for you, is a great example. http://linux.slashdot.org/story/15/01/07/232232/learn-gate-array-programming-in-python-and-software-defined-radio.
It would be nice to try some alternatives to the green check that always exists. Maybe they could fade after a certain length of time, or be toggled with some sort of hotkey. Maybe they could shrink down to a superscript-like dot of green safety indication.
Right now, it is very tempting to uninstall the plugin.