While this is a meaningful restriction, I think it should be made clearer to newbies why they cannot posts. The lack of reply box is not intuitive.
I concur. Some forums send an email or show a message after registration, like: Your account is limited until an administrator approves it, or you verify your email address or similar...
I only found out why I can't post after asking on IRC.
There should be a message after login or a permanent message bar with an explanation.