As with everyone, I began by merely browsing. I was deep into customising XP, and decided to offer help to others. This led through Vista(in particular) and Windows 7 - Windows 8. Like WHS, I have been retired throughout this, so had plenty of time. It became an unpaid occupation, in reality.
Impossible to count the help offered, but it is into thousands of posts. I am probably the member of several sites which I have not visited, for different reasons, for a long time. But, latterly, partly on request, I decided to dedicate to Windows 8 help. I currently visit nine forums, three of which are dedicated to Windows 8, the others include it as a sub section.
I have a problem with this at the moment. The material in the Windows 8 forums are sparse and, sadly, extremely repetitive in the help requests. I have begun to haunt some of the Windows 7 forums again.
I even had to change my nickname at some time around the XP era. Security was a little more relaxed in those days and I began to get totalled with Email and PMs, with private requests - even from my own locality.
Posts per day?. Well, for reasons stated, this has dropped off latterly, but in the early release days of Windows 8, and before, I would guess at about thirty to forty posts. As a hint for other, what I refer to as post counters, these were all positive. I shy from thing such as "Thank you" or glad you sorted" - you know the kind of thing. I do sometimes slip into those expressions, when I feel particular satisfaction for a good conclusion, however..
I think the MVP acknowledgement came along with the Vista experience, but have no knowledge of how or why. I do contribute quite a bit on the Microsoft pages, which may have helped. But, with emphasis on my earlier remark on the quality of a post, one thing is certain. A large post count is not a path to an MVP award, trust me.
P.S. I look back and read this - lol. It went on too long!!!