Newbies to oldies

When do you guys think people no longer are noobs. I think that its a couple of months but my friend josh thinks its like 2 years

I would say about three months, I am still a noob.

I don't think there is a specific time. I stop considering someone a noob whenever they stop being a noob. I think the word you may have been looking for his newb. Damn interenet semi-homonyms.

However, I don't consider people "oldies" until they've been here atleast three years, and still maintain activeness on the forums. I don't use the term "oldies" very often.

I'd say people stop being newbies when they learn to grow up and stop acting like idiots. Some people seem like newbies forever, others only a couple of months.

In my mind it's basically however long it takes for the name to stick.

If you're remembered on the forum, and our name comes up every once in a while, and you've been around long enough to make an impact, you're most likely an oldbie. Or just a revered member.

I've been here two and something years, and I consider myself inbetween. I'm not a newbie, for obvious reasons, but I'm not an oldbie. Just a regular member. That's the majority of the population, I'd say.

Who calls them "oldies"? I prefer to call them "Veterans".

Originally Posted by Dog Dog 123

I'd say people stop being newbies when they learn to grow up and stop acting like idiots. Some people seem like newbies forever, others only a couple of months.

I agree. It's the same as calling a person a "Kid" a "Man" or a "Woman". In the real world, I believe the line is crossed when the person has gained independence from the rest of the family. For independence, it doesn't matter how old you are, it matters on how much you've matured and learned about your surroundings.

For example, I once had an adoptee who was around 26 years old (married) but didn't know diddly squat about the internet (I had to walk her through on how to register for a photobucket account, upload her pictures, and teach her how to place them on ZU). Though she had the maturity of an adult when she spoke to me, the knowledge of the forums was close to dwindling.

Time isn't the factor, it's knowledge and maturity. She clearly had one, but not the other.

Now when it comes to a "Veteran", time is a factor (along with knowledge and maturity). It's when regular members and mods easily recognize you from your personality (even if you've become inactive for months/years). Veterans usually have been active for years (three years to say the least...that's my opinion).

Really, there are three stages: Newb==>Regular Member==>Veteran (my adoptee evolved into a Veteran!!![/bad pokemon joke])

-BGS

I'm going to be really boring and say that it's all subjective.

What's strange though is that I'm really horrible in judging how long people have been around for. Some members like hylianshroom, musical_zombie. and Holic seem to have been around for aggeeees, but they only really joined in the past few months. On the other hand, I've been more active in the past few weeks than I ever have (don't worry, I'll bugger off when Uni kicks up again ) and I'm only just noticing people who've been here for years. So I suppose that from my perspective, then these people are newbies, even though they've been here for waay longer than I have. XD

As for being a vet, that's a pretty hard question to answer. Personally, I think that a year is a pretty long time to be on a forum and I think that if you've made a sizable impact in 12 months, then I'd consider you to be a vet.

That definitley includes Sarah and Double Dee One Two Three.

Float your newbies.

I stop thinking of someone as a newbie after they've been here 3-4 months. But it doesn't really mean anything to me, other than an unconscious gauge of the population flow. It's not about how mature or active they are, or how well they've integrated themselves into the community; if they've only been here a couple of months, they're a newbie to me, and it's not lesser than a regular member or anything, just newer.

Anyone who has been longer than I have and stays 'active' (which means everyone I've seen) gets vet status in my eyes. I can see myself considering someone who joined later than I did and surpasses me in activeness and contribution (not too difficult there) being a vet, though.

I think newbies in two forms.

The first one is the absolutely horrible poster. These people, I will never ever respect and call a 'veteran.'

The second one is the nice poster. I consider them a veteran after about a year and a half, and I might befriend some of these.

To me there is no Newbies only people should only be classicfied as Newbies when they've just joined at that moment or whatever, I dont think it matters anyway. But if your talking about noobs like some right wierd noobs such as: Yes people who are just horrible spelling, bad grammer and everything, but what can I say.

The only reason I'm a veteran is because I've been here for 3 and a half years, and I managed to get 4,000 posts-ish in my first year. Being a chat regular probably helps, too. It helps you learn how most things work around the forums, or at least it did for me.

When you've seen about five of these threads

Really though, I agree with DogDog. There's really no set amount of time to me- it just depends on the person's maturity level and how long it takes for them to really fit into the community. By that I mean, having made quite a few posts, fairly easy to recognize, etc. But the whole newbie/vet business really doesn't matter much to me.

I guess I wouldn't consider myself a newb, though some still might. :p
I consider someone a newb for a day. After that, they're a ZU-hardened veteran, because it doesn't take much to be hardened here.

A "noob", however, is a different thing..

In my opinion, people are newbs as long as they post like one. Once they have a good grip on the forum, and post like they know what they're talking about, they're regular members.
Of course, if they type poorly, they still seem noobish. >>

Vets are people who have either A. Been here longer than me, or B. been here for two or more years. :]

I've been here for around 4 months, I'd still call myself a newbie. Especially considering that there are people here that joined in '02 and '03 (and maybe even earlier, I'm not sure).

if u were around to see the website change hands your not a newbie anymore


i'm rollin up on 3 years here

Actually, every post so far has been wrong. All of you are wrong.

This is how it actually goes down:

The ZU staff members submit a list of potential oldies, based on their judgement, to me every month or so. I then go over the list and pick out a select few to interview. After each interview, I decide wether they are worthy of the title "oldie" or not.

Most don't pass.

Originally Posted by Goodmonkey

__O RLY?___

What the hell? No.

I dunno.

Am I a newbie? I've only been here since last October.

Originally Posted by Panique

What the hell? No.

I dunno.

Am I a newbie? I've only been here since last October.

I classify you as an oldie. Length, sometimes, has nothing to do with it. Depends on the member and how they act.

^ Yeah, i'll go with him. It doesn't really matter how long you've been here, it's all about the effect you've had here. I consider 'oldies' (I too prefer Veteran) to be those people that newer members kind of look up too, the ones that everyone knows. You know, the ones that have carved out a place for themselves in the community.

I am, of course, a complete newb