MyBB Community Forums

How many post should I approve new members before they are free to post 20 35 or 50. New members do not seem to read the forum rules even thought it is clearly stated to read them first

I dont exactly get your question. Are you trying to say that before a user can get extra features on your forum the user must made some posts?
In that case I would say 25 is good if your forum is new but if you think you have 1000+ members then 50 should be decent
Thats my suggestion.

I suggest you include the rules in the newthread template. That way they're almost forced to read them when they create a thread.

My forum is not that new but there is not that many members posting