newbie

[very common; orig. from British public-school and military slang variant of new boy] A Usenet neophyte. This term surfaced in the {newsgroup} talk.bizarre but is now in wide use (the combination "clueless newbie" is especially common). Criteria for being considered a newbie vary wildly; a person can be called a newbie in one newsgroup while remaining a respected regular in another. The label newbie is sometimes applied as a serious insult to a person who has been around Usenet for a long time but who carefully hides all evidence of having a clue. See {B1FF}; see also {gnubie}. Compare {chainik}, {luser}.

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