# When is a newbie not a newbie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 3, 2000, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424 "2000-10-03T00:35:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jester/32/8223_2.png) [@Jester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jester)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/1 "2000-10-03T00:35:11Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/2 "2000-10-03T00:38:37Z")
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. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/3 "2000-10-03T00:38:40Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/4 "2000-10-03T00:39:52Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/5 "2000-10-03T00:39:56Z")
Great simulpost, Crunchy!! ---
**Author:** ![dpr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8797f3/32.png) [@dpr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dpr)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/6 "2000-10-03T00:43:38Z")
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. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Crunchy\_Frog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ebca7d/32.png) [@Crunchy\_Frog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crunchy_Frog)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/7 "2000-10-03T00:53:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Coldfire \* > \*\*Great simulpost, Crunchy!! \*\* That was kinda creepy, wasn’t it? And you’re already at 4600+ ?!?! Didn’t we just celebrate #4000 last week or something? ---
**Author:** ![porcupine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ac91a4/32.png) [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/8 "2000-10-03T00:56:59Z")
Once you start having dreams about posting here, you’re no longer a newbie. ---
**Author:** ![Coldfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a587f6/32.png) [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/9 "2000-10-03T00:57:49Z")
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) ---
**Author:** ![Jester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jester/32/8223_2.png) [@Jester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jester)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/10 "2000-10-03T01:02:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Coldfire \* > \*\*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! \*\* Errrrrrrrrrr…guh? Wow, you have NO idea how much that just made my night. \ It seems that this EVIL subject is beginning to pay off! Oh, but TWO double posts in a row? That’s just creepy, man… ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/11 "2000-10-03T01:17:18Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/12 "2000-10-03T03:06:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Coldfire \* > \*\*I’d say after about 4500 posts 😉 > \*\* Damn. That’s going to take me at least another week. ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/13 "2000-10-03T03:16:19Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Coldfire \* > **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, what would that make me in your mind? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![MysterEcks](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@MysterEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MysterEcks)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/14 "2000-10-03T03:19:49Z")
It’s like this, **Jester** –I consider myself a newbie, and you’re newer than I am, so I have to consider _you_a newbie too. Otherwise it becomes conceptually ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/15 "2000-10-03T03:23:44Z")
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) ---
**Author:** ![Jman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jman/32/4416_2.png) [@Jman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jman)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/16 "2000-10-03T03:54:52Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Idnew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/278dde/32.png) [@Idnew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idnew)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/17 "2000-10-03T04:21:54Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/18 "2000-10-03T04:23:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Crunchy Frog \* > \*\*Oh, yeah. The other time you can tell when you’re not a newbie is when people stop calling you newbie. 😃 \*\* Yeah! I’ve been promoted to “Big Fat Jerk!” (Anything’s better than “newbie.”) [sub]{{{{{pepperlandgirl}}}}[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![BrothaTJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d07c76/32.png) [@BrothaTJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrothaTJ)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/19 "2000-10-03T04:27:59Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Sue\_Duhnym](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@Sue\_Duhnym](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sue_Duhnym)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2000, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424/20 "2000-10-03T04:50:12Z")
When you’ve seen this thread before. The most previous incarnation: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=27332](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=27332) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-is-a-newbie-not-a-newbie/35424.md?page=2)