I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to reject anyone. Lurkers are important too, and I think it’s fine if people don’t fully understand the website until they’ve been here a few days or even a few months. I would very strongly recommend getting rid of the rather medieval approval process. The only thing it accomplishes is bouncing people away from the website.

Easy flow of site usage is incredibly important to hook new users, and that means being able to see content and post content the first time they’re here with minimal fuss, instead of having to come back later.