OT: Noob vs Newbie, etc

[Squirrelloid]

Originally Posted by Gandalf Parker

A basic tenant of anything diplomatic or customer service related is that only those that the term is applied to can say whether or not its offensive. It never really works for people outside of that group to say "you should not be offended by this term". Particularly when the argument is "its just a derivative of" Pick any term for any group thru history if you need examples. Better yet if its one that applies to you. A person can choose to laugh at PC (politically correct) but there is a reason that such thinking exists and gets used. Either choose to honor the request, or dont. But finding it hilarious isnt going to achieve the purpose desired here.

Of course there is always a situation where a person or group proudly takes on a term. But even they usually admit that they have taken a term usually used or taken harshly and owned it. I can think of at least 3 that apply to me in that category.

Considering this is a label that everyone has at one point and later doesn't have, its really a community standard thing more than something that gets permanently applied to some subset of the community. Eventually all n00bs cease being n00bs (at least in theory) or leave the community.

Its like being a freshman. Everyone was one once, so the current freshmen can't really justifiably complain about the term.