"A forum is just a forum". Why do you think anyone would possibly want to go to the main site and click on a forum link, when they could as well go directly to the forums and do one click from there, not to mention that method #2 would be way faster?

The portal is supposed to be a portal, not a link archive that goes to forum cathegories.

"Stephen Wolfram is the creator of Mathematica and is widely regarded as the most important innovator in scientific and technical computing today." - Stephen Wolfram