A Suggestion for the LinuxForums Community

[techieMoe]

I'm writing this as a user, not a moderator, so please take what I'm about to say as such. I think we as a community here at LinuxForums do a very good job of staying friendly and helpful to all members, whether they be inexperienced newcomers to the Linux world or those who can code their own VI or Emacs clone in assembler. One thing I have noticed recently is that a lot of our new members seem to think it's necessary to "declare" their newness to Linux by labeling themselves "n00bs"/"newbies"/etc.

I have always viewed the term "n00b" as a derrogatory and insulting term used most commonly in online multiplayer games such as Counterstrike, so to see someone purposefully call themselves such seems a bit like someone flagellating themselves in front of the Linux "gods" in order to be worthy. This is just silly.

I propose that we as a group encourage these newcomers to not label themselves so negatively. After all, no one is born with Linux knowledge. We've all been new to an operating system or a particular program time and time again. All members are welcome here and all members can contribute to our community in their own way, large or small. Therefore I encourage everyone to avoid using the term "n00b" or any of its derivatives and to let the new members know that it's not necessary.

Maybe I'm the only one that was bothered by this, but it was something I wanted to get off my chest nonetheless. Thanks for listening, and I'll now step off my soapbox.

[carlosponti]

i was born with linux knowledge in the order of the penguin kidding aside i agree with you because some questions i have seen were even difficult for experienced users to answer but they prefaced it with "i am a noob and this must be a silly question but..." Everyone had to start somewhere!

[Roxoff]

Whenever I see someone called "such-and-such_n003" or whatever, I always think they're gonna look awfully silly with that username after they've made 1000+posts...

[sdousley]

Personally this never really annoyed me, but i can totally see where you are coming from!!

I have said on here quite a few times to people claiming to be "noob's" that "their question is not silly... we all have to learn it somewhere", be it from simple ccommands like "ls" instead of "dir" upto creating full blown applications.

The ls command is something so simple, yet when used to windows and using "dir" to show the directory contents, we have to learn that the command is not "dir" but "ls". May not take long to learn, but it's still a lesson.

Not knowing something doesn't qualify someone as a "noob" or beginner. I'm sure there's PLENTY of stuff i still dont know about linux, does that qualify me as a "noob"... no. Just means i haven't learnt it yet for whatever reason, either i haven't been bothered to, haven't needed to, or simply cant work it out.

Just my 2 pence

[Giles]

I dont know... it can perhaps be helpful to kindof reclaim the term, so that it doesn't feel offensive any more. Although I wasn't alive to see it, I understand that 15 or so years back the term "geek" was widely considered to be offensive - now I think most people see it as something to be proud of. Although I'm not suggesting people should be particularly proud of being a newbie, I do think that it's generally good to stop a word from causing offense. If nothing else, then the next time someone's playing Counterstrike and gets called a n00b they wont start a flame war

Of course, the other thing that goes against your suggestion is that the forum officially labels you as a "linux newbie" between 100 and 250(?) posts - take a look to your left and you'll notice that I've just been "promoted" to newbie*

Giles
*what was I saying about not being proud to be a newbie? ...

[techieMoe]

Of course, the other thing that goes against your suggestion is that the forum officially labels you as a "linux newbie" between 100 and 250(?) posts...

Haha. I actually hadn't thought about that. Perhaps "newbie" is less offensive. I'm just personally against the use of "n00b".

[fingal]

I can also see where Moe is coming from. I don't like 'n00b' either because I think it's l33t speak and it sounds like 'boob' or ... 'Hey, you're an idiot'. I've seen it used as a term of abuse on here before as in, 'You're a complete n00b!'

But 'newbie' is different ... Newbies are small and furry with big appealing eyes.

[spencerf]

I think newbie and noob are very closely related therefore we should reconsider the demarcation given to new users ----"linux newbie" under their name. I have only used linux for a little more than a year now and from what I've seen "noob" and "newbie" are commonly used and I have seen that their is a definitely a culture of linux hierarchy out there especially in linux forums (in general). Therefore I propose getting rid the of the "linux newbie" tag on these forums and changing it to something that is a little less hierarchical.

[yermom]

heh, i was guilty of self applying this... but i was more referring to being new to this forum

the culture is always different on different boards

this seems to be one of the least hostile ones i've seen, in my limited exposure to it so far...

[oz]

I don't like the terms newbie, newb, or noob either. If it needs to be established at all, the term "new user" seems much more appropriate.