Turning off moderation

@bkhoward2020,
The topic/post unapproved status only applies to first 3-5 post of a new registered user. This is a spam protection. Once user got three approved post his further posts will be automatically approved.
The number of posts to let users post approved content is set in Dashboard > Forums > Tools > Antispam Tab. You can set it 1 or make other configuration after reading this doc: https://gvectors.com/how-to-disable-topics-and-posts-moderation/