idk - in most internet circles i hang around in - "newbie" or "noob" is not a nice term at all - and its mostly thrown at you as an insult - even to the point of attacking your basic skills and even your character.
The membership of this board is a little more mature than to sink to that sort of behaviour, which is why the mods have an easy life here - it's a very rare occassion that we have to intervene because a thread has got out of hand.
You must be hanging around the wrong sort of circles - beware of the lure of the dark side...
However, if we've got people getting offended or upset by the newbie title, I don't see a problem with changing to to something innocuous like "Occasional Visitor" or something.
