Hi, it took me 3 attempts over 2 months to join. In the end I had to make an account at Steemit Chat and ask someone there, they have a link in the 'sticky' section for who to contact about stuck sign ups.
I think the person is @drakos, once I filled in a stuck signup form it was approved in a couple days.
thanks for the info @tradergurl
more info as it's not obvious >
go to https://steem.chat/channel/help
click the 3 dots in the top right, looks like a 'settings' icon and just says 'more' if you hover on it
select 'pinned messages'
instructions are in there.
hope that helps !