From reading the topic, I would like to clarify what your needs are. I am unsure specifically what you want the approval flow to be. Can you please clarify if these are correct:
- all first posts by trust level 0 & 1 should be approved
- all posts by trust level 2 should not be approved
If these are what you want, I suggest these settings:
First setting: The first setting should already handle those points because it puts the first post by TL0 & TL1 (new and basic users) into the approval queue. If you want the first 3 posts by TL0 & TL1 users to go into the approval queue, then you would change it to 3.
Second setting: If you want all posts by trust level 0&1 users to require approval—the whole time while they are trust level 0&1 (not just the first post)–then you would change the second setting to be "admins, moderators, trust level 2”.
Third setting: The last site setting in that picture has to do with TOPICS rather than individual posts. If you change this and not the second setting, a user will be able to still make several replies to other people’s topics, but their first topic will still need to be approved.
But my ultimate recommendation is probably to try and avoid having to approve all people’s new posts unless you have a very large spam problem or similar, and nothing else is working to stop the spam.
Because for new users, being able to post and connect with others and get feedback on your posts (likes, comments) soon after you’ve signed up for a site makes it more likely you want to keep coming back and contributing more.
If you’re finding that you have to approve a lot of posts that are absolutely fine and aren’t at all spammy or problematic, then maybe it might also be worth considering whether it is worth putting them all through the approval queue. Because otherwise it is creating unnecessary friction for users and unnecessary work for yourself and other moderators.
If 90% of posts are fine, you can let new users post them without approval. If there are 10% problematic posts, you can use some other tools to deal with them rather than having to approve all posts. [See other tips on dealing with spam on this topic: Tips for Preventing Spam]