Those weren't actually new users, those were users whose account validation I had just forced, in one big batch, because their records didn't indicate that they'd come to validate their accounts, presumably because they never got the email. I decided that it was, on balance, the better part of discretion to take it upon myself to validate them.

Once I get the site design radically simplified, I think I'll eliminate the ubermoderator-approval step and let people register at the initial level automatically. I think it'd be dangerous/foolish to give just anybody who registers use of my scarce resources like disk space for a file gallery, or bandwidth, and so automatic registrants will get just bare forum access. But the important goal of letting new people post quickly will be served.