Forums Scripts & Popups calling dynamic variables

I'm trying to keep variables for various users, for example, the number of times they post. To keep a new variable for each $nick I write:

/set % $+ $nick $+ Counter 0

Which creates the variable %baseuserCounter with the value 0.

But when I try to call this up:

/describe $chan % $+ $nick $+ Counter

The output just says:

%baseuserCounter

Instead of its value, 0.

Any help?