We've unfortunately had a problem with spambots and suspicious accounts. Although we've changed settings so that all new accounts need to be activated by the admin it's a hassle to investigate every new account to see if they're legit.

What we'd like to do is make it so that all new users- by default- cannot post or see messages, but can only PM the admin to prove that they're not a bot. Once the admin has received a message that is clearly from a human they can activate the account. Is there a way of doing this?

hello

yes you can make groups https://help.forumotion.com/t10988-organizing-groups-colors-in-legend?highlight=groups

group 1 - set number of posts 0
group 2 - set number of posts 2

set the group rights ...go to all categories and make the group 1 to not be able to view or post 
then go to all categories again and set group 2 to be able to view and post 

this means that your member will need more than 2 posts to be able to participate on your forum

You can also set the number of posts before you can use the PM system.

All members will be in the group with zero posts, but if they are in other groups with higher posts numbers, they wil have that groups' rivileges.

When your request is complete, please mark it as Solved.