The issue with people not speaking English is a valid one, though ... maybe new people should be allowed into those forums ... and people posting English in those forums be banned after second warning ;-)
The local forums are exempt from the restrictions.
Honestly, the Newbie forums have been a very positive change for the forum. The newb posts outside of that forum have dropped to levels we haven't seen in weeks, and the newbies are actually getting the help they need instead of being chastised by the old forum members.
Don't have 4 hours to kill and you want to announce the launch of a new Bitcoin business? We'll whitelist you. Personally, I've been whitelisting around 20 people per day.
The system works.
we still have issues like bitcoin7.com not being able to reach the proper audience and so he had to wait for 2 hours until i got his PM to post his new exchange site. I have posted the new exchange in general now though, hopefully he will be permitted to post so he can talk about it himself.