I just noticed no points are given to a user creating a forum topic, only when replying. Is this correct behavior, or did I disable something without realizing it?

That is not correct behaviour.

Points are awarded through posts, not forum topics / "replies". When you create a forum topic, you always create a first post with it, so you should have received points for that first post.

That sounds like a bug if the first post is not awarding points, but future ones are.

There is one caveat: posts flagged for validation will not receive points until validated. This behaviour is different from other content. This is because posts are often used for spamming.

Thanks! I didn't think it was normal behavior. I was using the "test" user when I noticed it. I'll create a new member through the normal join process and see if that makes a difference. I'll report back my findings.

Side note: I've been Deleted again!  

Sounds like a plan.

I noticed that too, LOL. I am not sure why that is happening.

I created a new member through the normal join process and the topic count was working as should be.

So I logged in as the "test" user and topic counts was working for that user also. Weird!

Strange things will happen in the Matrix.  

Topic counts? Those work differently than points. They're on a cache so sometimes they get inaccurate momentarily.

Sorry, I meant the points for creating topics.

Weird. I have no idea