I find myself missing 
more often than ever, when browsing a topic. You can see the categories you are in, but not get to the latest/new/unread page without going all the way up and then hit ‘Forum’.
Just a suggestion to get them on the topic-page 
Not sure what you mean. you mean you’d like to have this banner inside each topic?
Anyway, we use discourse software to power the forum and we are pretty much tied to what they offer.
Correct.
It was just a suggestion to improve it. No big deal
Allright, how about adding Forum to the left-hand index:
Done 
You know, the Jamie face in the upper left also works…
I did not know that 