# Can new users be 'Read Only' while their account gets approved by moderation?
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-new-users-be-read-only-while-their-account-gets-approved-by-moderation/113578
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [April 5, 2019, 7:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-new-users-be-read-only-while-their-account-gets-approved-by-moderation/113578 "2019-04-05T19:03:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Dylan\_Russell](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Dylan_Russell)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2019, 7:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-new-users-be-read-only-while-their-account-gets-approved-by-moderation/113578/1 "2019-04-05T19:03:01Z")
Hi there, title pretty much explains my question. Right now when new users are created they have to be approved my admin, but this working quite right for us. Ideally we’d like new users to have access to read-only forum, then once admin approves their account they can stop posting.
Just wondering how this should best be done! I’m not even sure if the Admin Approval feature is what we really need. Any suggestions on this is helpful.
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [April 5, 2019, 7:40pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-new-users-be-read-only-while-their-account-gets-approved-by-moderation/113578/2 "2019-04-05T19:40:15Z")
Hmmm, if you disable the `login required` setting that is the effectively the same right?
Allowing anons and unapproved users expose the posts in the same way.
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### Author:  [@schleifer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/schleifer)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2019, 1:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-new-users-be-read-only-while-their-account-gets-approved-by-moderation/113578/3 "2019-04-06T13:01:13Z")
> [@Falco](#):
>
> Allowing anons and unapproved users expose the posts in the same way.
Googlebot is an anon, so I’d say the scope is still different.
> [@Dylan\_Russell](#):
>
> I’m not even sure if the Admin Approval feature is what we really need.
It’s hard to give advice because you haven’t said what your goal is, just what you’re currently doing. Do you want to restrict all content? Or just limit who can post? What’s the motivation?
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [April 6, 2019, 2:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-new-users-be-read-only-while-their-account-gets-approved-by-moderation/113578/4 "2019-04-06T14:08:50Z")
> [@schleifer](#):
>
> > [@Falco](#):
> >
> > Allowing anons and unapproved users expose the posts in the same way.
>
> Googlebot is an anon, so I’d say the scope is still different.
If blocking search bots is the objective, better to use the specific setting for that.
But as you said, OP didn’t explain the use case enough…
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### Author:  [@sam](https://meta.discourse.org/u/sam)
#### Post date: [April 9, 2019, 5:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-new-users-be-read-only-while-their-account-gets-approved-by-moderation/113578/5 "2019-04-09T05:48:42Z")
Note for the googlebot problem @Dylan_Russell remember we have the `allow index in robots txt` site setting, so you can still disable indexing here.
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2022, 11:38am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/can-new-users-be-read-only-while-their-account-gets-approved-by-moderation/113578/7 "2022-06-25T11:38:03Z")