Why do some groups have to approve new members?

Some Groups have taken the decision to approve all new members to the Group. This can delay an application, but is done for several (very good) reasons:

• known spammers can be rejected
• automatic signups can be rejected (stops email address harvesting)
• people can be directed to a Group that's more local to them

If you receive an email from the Group moderators asking for more information (or just to confirm you're actually a person and not an automated computer program!) then please follow their instructions - they're not being difficult, they're just protecting the list members (of which you will soon hopefully be one!)