It's one of those forums where a lot of industry people are members and post crap there shortly before it gets out to the greater web.
The member backlog/rejection thing comes from making sure that anyone who is requesting an account isn't a complete troll or someone who has already been banned. That said, I don't completely get either. There was a post a few weeks about one of their mods who went through and banned all the accounts that had been accepted in the previous week but had not yet made at least 10 non-"me too!" posts and everyone was ok with it.

Despite it being a large community that anyone can just pop over and read, it operates like a large private community. You're either know what the community is like and are willing to play the game, or you have an unpleasant time.