I disable them as 'tooltips' and just let them show as text by default.
After converting to XF, my members felt lost on forum home so I made a few tweaks that just stuck.
I enable them. I love the hover tooltips! Every once in a while, I hover over the forum categories, just to admire it. It's a small thing, but I love it.
I do, wish, however.... that the forum descriptions appeared in responsive view. As a matter of fact, I'll make a new suggestion...