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If I am understanding you correctly, you don't want those things, if that's the case maybe another module would be better for what you want to do, those things are what makes article the module that it is.
Maybe the "news module" or the "content module" may be a better choice. I have just installed the "news module" on another site so I am not familiar with it yet, it may have similar features, although it does seem to have lots of options in the admin to turn things on and off. I am not overly familiar with the "content module" either.
I suggest it may be best to try a few modules and see what suits you best. If you are good at the PHP stuff, I suppose anything is possible, I am not, so I try many modules to find what's best for what I want to do. ;o)