today i've been quite active in the forums but my post count has remained static. is there a max for posts allowed per day or something?
You do not receive an addition to your post count if you are in the "Word Games" section of the site.
As adamant said, certain areas of the forum don't attract a count for posting, namely the "Word Games" area.
No need to point fingers. The Word Games forum is the least writing-oriented area of the site, and typically with very short posts, so Lpspider didn't wish the posting counts to be overly weighted by that purely recreational activity. That way, posting counts come closer to reflecting activity related to the site's purpose. Now the Lounge also has a lot of frivolous posting, but there is enough positive value in what takes place there that the post count still does include that area. On the other hand, that is a major reason we have to crack down periodically and insist that people stay on topic in those threads.
What adam and Cogito said is accurate. The word count is disabled for the word games forum to hopefully encourage posting elsewhere.