Cause I’m sure as hell curious. Is it judged by months posting, number of posts, quality, or is it just a state of mind? I wanna know whether I’m worthy of the status of…well, whatever’s above newbie. There’s gotta be something better! Do I just have to make lotsa friends, or what? How much more do I have to do?
It’s a state of mind. You’re no longer a newbie when you stop feeling like one. Posts are irrelevent, IMHO. Look at Coldie’s 4000+ posts and compare it to my 1400+ posts. Relative to Coldfire, I’m still a newbie, but I don’t feel like one. Make sense there newbie?
Oh, yeah. The other time you can tell when you’re not a newbie is when people stop calling you newbie. 
I’d say after about 4500 posts 
Seriously: there are no given rules. It’s the general impression you leave on the populace. The true division is not newbie/olbie, but “asset”/“liabilty” rather, in terms of what you are to the boards at large.
So far, Jester, I’d rank you as an asset!
I consider myself a midbee just because I made a friend. Yeah, one friend… but that’s ok. I’m a midbee. I’m nowhere near a reg or even a semireg, but I’m a midbee.
Great simulpost, Crunchy!!
When one stops questioning one’s newbie status…
I vaguely recall someone putting forward a table based on post number (hardly a valid measure in my eyes). I can’t remember it though so I’ve made up my own
0-20 Lurker,
21-100 Just Playing,
101-250 Newbie,
251-1000 Rookie,
1001-2000 Regular/Doper,
2001 A Space Odyssey,
2002-4000, demi-god status,
4001-9999 Fixture (translation: don’t have a life)
10,000 > God (or Cecil-in-training)
But seriously, I vote for state of mind and when other people start recognising you, then you may have been here too long.
That was kinda creepy, wasn’t it? And you’re already at 4600+ ?!?! Didn’t we just celebrate #4000 last week or something?
Once you start having dreams about posting here, you’re no longer a newbie.
Don’t tell anyone, Crunch, but I’m after handy’s title
(don’t worry, I’m not really. I could never gain on him, with the length of HIS posts :D)
Errrrrrrrrrr…guh? Wow, you have NO idea how much that just made my night. <Dr. Evil pinkey to mouth> It seems that this EVIL subject is beginning to pay off! Oh, but TWO double posts in a row? That’s just creepy, man…
Just some thoughts. We see a post along these lines from time to time. I think Crunchy put it well with the reference to your own frame of mind about it.
I found this board almost as soon as it appeared, as I’d been in the habit of checking Cecil’s column every week but had not been on AOL so I couldn’t go to the old board. I lurked for about three weeks and then signed on. At that point the majority of the posters were vets from the AOL board and I think I felt kind of “newbie” for about two weeks (at which point I probably had ~15 posts). Then, I just felt like I had as much right as anyone else to be here.
Oh yeah, and I pissed off Monty. I was in.
Damn. That’s going to take me at least another week.
So, what would that make me in your mind?
It’s like this, Jester–I consider myself a newbie, and you’re newer than I am, so I have to consider youa newbie too. Otherwise it becomes conceptually ridiculous.
I definitly want to aruge against the idea that number of posts has anything to do with it; I, myself, have been reading and posting to the SDMB for over a year. In that time I doubt I have gone three days without checking in unless I was on vacation. However, I only post whe I really have something to say, but I definitly would not consider myself a newbie.
(In fact, I have never figured out how others get thier post counts so high)
I’m with you, Manda Jo. Sure, I’ve got about what, 130 posts or something? That’s big for me. On my most visited board of all time, I have like 350 posts. I like to read a lot of them, and when I have an opinion on something, I say it. I usually do not echo people as well, which a lot of people do.
Jman
Well look how long I’ve been floating around in here and just decided to start posting instead of lurking due to something that took place. I really hate to get into mud slinging battles although I will at times, but I’d rather not so just been checking in and reading. Somebody in here is always looking to flame somebody if you in the slightest say something they don’t like. Like are we all supposed to think alike or believe the sames things? I don’t think so.
Yeah! I’ve been promoted to “Big Fat Jerk!” (Anything’s better than “newbie.”)
[sub]{{{{{pepperlandgirl}}}}[/sub]
When it’s a jar.
Get it?
OK read the subject line again.
:::buries head in hands sobbing::: oh why do I try, I’m such a newbie!!
I strongly agree with Manda JO’s sentiment. “Newbie” isn’t the word for some of us, maybe “Unpolished Poster” would be better. We’ve been around and we know the ways of the boards but we’re not experts at articulating yet in the way the bona fide “regulars” are.
When you’ve seen this thread before.
The most previous incarnation: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=27332