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Some forums will have a nofollow tag attached to links - so those aren't going to help with PageRank at all, which is generally what people think of when they refer to links "helping in the ranking" - however, the link will provide traffic, regardless.
As far as punishment - Google will most certainly punish you for links that are unnatural. By unnatural that means too many at one time, links that are specifically from link farms or large directories and links that are from irrelevant sources.
For example, if I was selling purple shoes who cares if a dentist is linking to me?
Another thing to consider is that there is sometimes a "honeymoon period" with Google and ranking. Sometimes you'll rank higher, have more pages listed and more links for a bit - but then Google takes the time to re-evaulate what you are offering and might bump you down to a more realistic ranking/value.
Ashley
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