+1 for putting it on the top of the front page
A small icon or button takes up virtually no space. There's plenty of extra stuff that we don't need but never the things that we do. Don't forget who your customers are !!
Like others, I want to come and see whats going on in the forums. Currently it just takes too long to go back to them, so I'm not bothering any more.
If you want reader support then make it easy to find and fast to access. Typically I've only got a couple of minutes between real day job tasks, so if it not easy to get to, then I'll simply do something else instead.
Second question - why is it necessary to keep fiddling with the page layout and add unnecessary graphics all over the place. Why do we need a bouncing bird ? There are specialist websites for people who like that sort of thing.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
