To address your first question ryanlion, you need to meet certain criteria before you are granted access to the chat box now. Too many members have been joining just to use the chat box feature and the staff feel as though the chat box is more of a privilege for those members who have contributed to the forum itself first. We don't ask much of our new members in order to gain access to the chat box, so just keep on making contributive posts to the forum and you'll earn your way back into the chat box in no time. ^^
As for your post count not increasing, this is probably due to the fact that you are making posts in off topic areas of the forum. Only the Lion King related boards will count towards your post count if you post in those threads. Everything else will not, as we want the main focus to be upon the Lion King aspect of this forum, as that should be the main reason why anyone joins the forum in the first place. ^^
Hope this clears up your confusion.