the sci guy 

I'd like to reiterate this.
And when I said bottom of the page, I mean between the last post & quick-reply box where they were previously.
It's a natural place for a quick link back to the forum index that requires no further scrolling, and I basically use it every singe time.

It's also much easier on mobile devices to hit that instead of thumbing all the way to the bottom of the page and trying to hit that tiny link in the extreme corner.