New Forum Members Not Showing Up In "What's Happening" fields.

[Digital2]

I have a question about an issue which has been bugging me to death.

The url to my site is http://www.online-equines.com

When a user registers on my site they are also simultaneously registered in the forums as well. The forum software does not handle registrations at all. All of those links point to the site's /register.php. The site's required info is then queried into the forum database as well as the site's. The info sent to the forums is Username, Password, E-Mail Address, and date joined.

There is no user email verification required. Users can register on the site and then immediately begin using the forums. All of this works fine.

The problem is that when new members register, the Total Members and Latest Member fields in the "What's Happening" area near the bottom of FORUMHOME are not being updated. I am having to log in to the ACP and update the username counters in the maintenance area.

Surely there is a way to get this to update automatically? I would greatly appreciate any help that anyone here could offer.

Interestingly the code below works (from the header of the Grunged Theme) with Grunged but it does not work when I replace the default code in FORUMHOME with it. If I load the grunged theme, however, the user info in the header is updated and accurate using the below code. Why will this same code, when used in my "What's Happening" area not work with my custom theme?

<p class="style1"><strong>Members:</strong> $numbermembers<br>
        <strong>Threads:</strong> $totalthreads<br>
        <strong>Posts:</strong> $totalposts<br>
        <strong>Online: $totalonline</strong></p>
    <p class="style1"><strong>Newest Member:</strong> <a href="$vboptions[bburl]/member.php?u=$newuserid"> 
        $newusername</a></p>

Thanks.