According to dictionary.com, newbie is “an inexperienced user of the Internet or of computers in general.” However this term now applies to anyone who is new to anything in, and outside of computers. In fact, noob is so widely used nowadays that the meaning is completely lost in redundancy.

On forums where text, avatar, and alias are the only defining characteristics, what then defines a newbie? One of the most common ways of judging a newbie from the pack is by simple post-count (or lack thereof.) Many forums use this database which shows joining date and number of posts. It does not matter how much time is spent lurking, studying, or how much prior knowledge one has; the fact is, that until post-count (contribution worthiness) reaches an acceptable level and/or date of joining exceeds some milestone, newbie status reigns. The general consensus seems to be that time-in and “enough” posts of relevant material determine the shedding of the newbie title. Another popular determination is found within the quality of posts. Seasoned users scrutinize topic headings, relevance, and levels of complaint as gauges in making their newbie assessments. It is almost certain death when a new user complains or spews destructive criticism. However, it is interesting to note that it is extremely acceptable for seasoned users to complain, go off topic and hijack posts.

The question then is, ‘how much experience is enough to lose the status of newbie?’ Lately it seems that newbie status has become less about self-deprecation (“Help! I have a newbie question”) and more about being negatively viewed by those who have long lost their own newbie label. The assumption is that newbies are less educated about the topic and/or do not understand the rules of an on-line community, and/or are only causing trouble. This view is strikingly similar to debates surrounding new immigrants and their socialization.

The newbie label has become a derogatory term more than ever before; it’s as if newbies have become parasites of the internet asking stupid (ill-researched) questions, posting the wrong kind of topic heading (“help me I’m stuck!!!”) or generally being disruptive to the community. If post-count or joining date were not displayed for all to see and to judge by, would it be as easy to pick out the newbies simply by what they type and how they type it? Would seasoned users then also be criticized for going off topic and being disruptive?

Equally, by post count and joining date we could also easily ask – what doth make an expert? Perhaps another assumption is that those with high post-counts must be more knowledgeable and serious than those with lesser counts. Sure it may be true for some, but anyone can post to the “fluff” discussion and throw in their two cents on any number of topics from ‘how long is your hair’, to ‘what do you eat for breakfast’, without gleaning any more knowledge than the truly inexperienced members. The logical assumption is that if people have been active in a community for a long time, they must be serious about the forum topic, successful in assimilation and therefore a “non-noob” user.

One popular and over-debated topic on a forum in which I lurk is, “is Arch for newbies?”. It begs the question: How new is the newbie? Have they ever turned on a computer? Or have they tinkered and consider themselves savvy, but are just new to the concept of Arch? There is a huge difference here, but for some reason this fact is overlooked as new and seasoned users alike heatedly debate the question ad nauseum. Everyone has an opinion, but it is so obvious that there is no straight-up yes/no answer to that question. The answer (without knowing if the person in question has ever turned on a computer) should be hell yes! If people are willing to learn then that’s all that should matter. Is Arch for everyone? As with taking up anything new, people have to research it, experience it and then decide for themselves. No other variables matter. Experienced users cannot decide what works best for a non-user. It is like explaining to women that it hurts to get kicked in the gonads…we know it hurts, but we don’t understand how exactly.

As in any community forum, and much like many societies, there is a definite hierarchy in place. The difference being that one’s status within the community is not based on real life success or monetary wealth–it is based on knowledge, who holds it and…oh, post count. Joining a forum is to become part of a community where rules are established and enforced to maintain order, and where protocol must be followed for the collective good of the group. Despite those that test these limits, many join a community for common reasons, mainly to share ideas and to learn.

The term newbie is no longer a valid assessment of one’s worth or experience on-line. In labelling someone a newbie, is to identify them as being at the bottom of the hierarchy–plain and simple. The social construct of the rite of passage from joining (newbie) to becoming a respected member restrains everyone from the goal of sharing knowledge. New users may restrain themselves from posting for fear of repercussion, while seasoned users expend useless energy pointing out the flaws within the posts. With it’s overuse and blatantly ambiguous nature, “newbie” can no longer describe the varying degrees of experience people have. Despite the reasons for people joining, showing up, posting or not, the basis of any good community is diversity. Differing opinions, controversy, and open discourse is what makes a community great, and this should be acknowledged. In grouping all new forum registrants with the burdensome label of newbie with a big fat 1 post count, is to perpetuate the negative connotation and stagnate growth. So what doth make a newbie? Remove the post-count and joining date and find out.

The Arch Forums screenshot thread is the most popular, most viewed thread each and every month.  It is a place to show and tell and for others to see how to best maximize space, usability and creativity.  After being a faithful follower for months, I noticed (and not surprisingly) that a number of wallpapers displayed bikini-clad models. If there was a person displayed at all, they were more often females (fantasy characters, actors) than males. Rarely are males depicted in wallpapers, unless they are game characters or Anime.

I also know there are quite a few women users of Arch who also regularly post their screenshots and wondered what would happen if I threw in a partially nude male model in my screenshot with a strategically placed Openbox menu?   Would users ask where to find the photo as is very common with many partially nude female photos? or would anyone comment in general?

Well maybe it was just waiting in anticipation, but hours went by without a word. I posted at 1600 hrs on June 8 and the next post was a long 12 hours (and the next day) later. Certainly odd and to my knowledge there was never any remark about my screenshot.  I waited for something—anything, especially because my post also had the disclaimer, “This might be NSFW for some…” I thought that at least one person would express their opinion about it, good or bad.

I also wondered if the lack of response was because no one wanted to admit to actually looking at it (after all, more than 450 users did view it) or if people just didn’t know what say. I can understand why most males wouldn’t want to say anything remotely in favour, as it might be construed the wrong way but I thought at least some of the women would comment.

It is always interesting to challenge double-standards and the status quo; to gauge reaction and see what it all might mean.  On the surface, my wallpaper had no meaning at all — or maybe it provoked something deeper. No reaction at all could be just that—nothing, but I am hopeful that it challenged the norms somehow or made some impact on the other half. I also recognize that my own biased assumptions are at play here and maybe I expected too much but the bottom line is,  I will never know.

Around 1999 the group Adbusters proposed “Turn Off TV Week”—a social experiment of sorts to get as many people to shut off their television sets for one whole week and see what creative craziness could arise. Adbusters’ mandate is to “topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live in the 21st century”. Each year the number of people tuning out has grown to a world-wide phenomena. After all it’s only a week, how hard can it be.

Pre-internet gaming addiction, when television was the bigger drug, we took a deep breath and unplugged it for one week. Not only did we unplug it, we rigged some rudimentary booby trap so that it couldn’t easily be plugged back in during moments of weakness. Oh, and there were many moments. Sadly the contraption was more for our sake, rather than the kids.

Day one—Ouch. A lot of pacing happened, walking into the living room, leaving and walking back again a few minutes later just from sheer habit. We didn’t know what to do exactly. What could possibly fill the void of TV? It’s like when the power goes out, you think ‘oh well, I’ll just turn on the kettle and make tea while I wait’.

Day two—Okay we realize we have to talk to each other. Time is excruciatingly slow and barren. The kids start whining about what they are supposed to do with all this extra time and how we are torturing them. Once they realized we weren’t going to cave – they relented. Well hey, let’s do something together.

After that it was surprisingly easy to find things to do. The kids became incredibly creative doing art projects; we laughed, talked and got a loads of old ‘to dos’ done. After a week of having time to cook full meals, read and relax, we turned the TV back on and it was like being assaulted with images. The bright lights and hyper-masculine-voiced commercials hurt the precious quiet. Wow.

Turn Off TV Week (now Mental Detox Week) is coming around again, but since August 2006, we cut off our cable anyway so it’s no big deal. We have one snow-filled channel, but it’s a good one, the CBC. We mainly get the news and some great documentaries—oh and Hockey Night in Canada; we can’t see the puck but we get the general gist from the location of the players.

Since our frightful withdrawal from TV, a new temptress has drawn our attention and those smart people at Adbusters recognize this new distraction and now want people to turn off not only TV’s but laptops, XBOX, PSP’s and yes, even iPods. *gulp* I’m not sure how music contributes to their overall ideology of banning corporate media messages, but hey it’s about unplugging, taking back simplicity and all its silence.

Adbusters want to shake things up by showing people that in turning off mainstream media, we are “challenging the heavily distorted reflection of the world that we see on the screen, a reflection that is keeping us ill-informed and unaware of the very real political and environmental crises that we all currently face”.

Can we do it? I don’t think I can. For many, including myself I have school to contend with, some work from home projects and various dalliances to fulfill *ahem*. If there wasn’t school or work from home, what is the big deal? It’s a tough and painful descent into one’s psyche. Well I want to stay in touch, connected, know what’s going on….uhm check the weather, horoscope…is Tuesday a good day for me? Anyone using their computer every day can come up with dozens of reasons why they can’t give it up for one day, let alone seven. It’s too scary to think about, let alone do.

I’ll think about it some more and see if I can figure out what it is about the little screen or that clickety-click sound that so dominates me. I can only compare it with what it would be like to shave my head bare. I have to ask myself what’s the big deal about hair? It grows back, it doesn’t define me, it’s not important to my well-being, I don’t *need* it. But it DOES define me, it IS important…but why? I don’t really know why—except that society has convinced me it is.

First of all, we recommend everyone of any country, attend a citizenship ceremony; not only to see how government works, but more importantly to see the faces of the immigrants as they complete the last and final step in what is a very tedious process. In a room of a hundred would-be citizens, 13% of the world’s population was represented—that’s 25 countries! Staggering. As we looked at their faces, we wondered what kind of lives they left behind. Did they come to escape or to explore? Did they sacrifice everything?

Dressed up in formal pomp and display, a citizenship ceremony is a symbolic event to mark the transition from one life to another. A necessary rite of passage for some, an unthinkable proposition for others. For those who are citizens by default and who take it for granted everyday, we have to ask ourselves what would it mean coming from Sudan, Iraq, or even the USA? Perhaps they want certain freedoms, choice, democracy, or something less egalitarian such as being with someone they met online?

Certainly we can thump our chests and tout our rights and freedoms, but it means nothing until you can see it in the eyes of those who have made the journey; those who pursued the unknown—their smile says it all.

No one really cares if I have finished my Christmas shopping—why should they? Do they really expect to stand around and listen to my woes of not being able to find some obsolete perfume my mom has worn for the last thirty years? Or to hear about the scads of money I have spent on everyone? I doubt it. The fact is, at this time of year that greeting replaces the hi-how-are-you-variety. To which ‘fine’ or ‘good’ are the stock answers because no one wants to hear how I really am. It is just filler to get through those awkward moments in passing.

Ellen Degeneres talks about this on her Here and Now (2003) dvd:

Even when we say, “How are you?” we don’t mean, “How are you?”—we don’t care. Just give us a “fine” or a “good”—a one syllable answer and move along. And don’t even say “pretty good”. That’s a follow-up question: “pretty good” “something happen?… I don’t… have… time to…”

Funny stuff because it is so true. In the past few weeks, I have been asked repeatedly if I finished my Christmas shopping and even though I haven’t, I just say “yup, how about you?” Frankly I hope they don’t have some long, convoluted response either. I just don’t care and that’s why I never ask anyone to start with. I did make the mistake once of responding with, “actually I’m not buying Christmas gifts this year”, which prompted a clipped explanation of my reasons why—then somehow foolishly claiming that we actually don’t have cable TV. I’ll bet he was glad he asked! It all sounds so radically different that people just don’t know what to say in response, and at that point I wished I never said anything, but “yup, how about you?”. It is a meaningless, empty greeting and discouraging to think that finishing one’s Christmas shopping is something to be touted to anyone who asks.

Let’s face it Christmas has become one long commercialized holiday where the expectation is to shop til you drop and outdo last year. There is nothing more repulsive than listening to someone talk about their shopping excursions; how long the line-ups were, how aisles were clogged with pushy people, all to buy another wallet for dad because that’s what he wants every year and that is what’s expected. When in contrast, donations for food banks are down, the homeless are freezing on the cold streets, and single mothers cannot give gifts to their children.

It is safe to say that gamers make up a very large (and steadily growing) subculture but yet very little is known about them. It is also true that gamers are one of the most misunderstood groups in society today and as such it is conceivable that those who don’t game would dismiss the gamer’s (“gamer” isn’t even in the dictionary!) perspective or what drives them. Why do gamers choose to immerse themselves in what seems to be a one-dimensional and media-deemed antisocial environment? To know this answer is to be one—albeit an even scarcer, female one. But we are a homogeneous bunch and I have a few theories…

Your Whole World Travels with You…
LAN parties—take your persona on the road. Everything you need is on your computer, your connection to people, to the outside word and into a world that’s imaginary—where you control all. It’s funny watching people set up their own “little space” at warehouse-sized LAN parties or even in someone’s cramped house—everyone finds their spot, painstakingly sets up the cables, boots up and eagerly tweak settings. Some bring artifacts to enhance their space, including stuffed animals, good luck charms and anything else that makes them feel more “at home”. This new space becomes their shrine and it is a do not touch zone—you can check out the gear, but no touchy touchy. Everyone has his or her own way of doing things and their own way of setting up shop. It is true poetry to experience the feverish concentration of tweaking, clicking, and adjusting.

You can go everywhere and anywhere with your computer…

It *is* a Social Activity…
Socializing has taken on completely new meaning in this techno-age. We can be social, talk, get to know people and have fun playing a game without being in the same room (and without hearing or seeing anyone). It is amazing really; who would have thought that one day you would be playing cards with someone in another country? It is hard enough going to a coffee shop and striking up a conversation with someone at another table – let alone asking them for a game of cribbage! Because of the ambiguity, people are more willing to chat, share stories, laughter, resources and opinions. There is a certain freedom in getting to know someone by communicating in text only—without all the baggage associated with body language, looks and social acceptabilities. The initial awkwardness at getting to know someone does not exist here.

As for LAN parties, people come together from all over the country to participate in a group tournaments that are exhaustive, intensive and very satisfying. It is rewarding to finally put a face to a name and already have a connection with that person that defies ‘normal’ encounters. It is like an immediate kinship and bond between people that is unlike no other. I remember at a large warehouse LAN party playing against one fellow who I consistently challenged. He finally jumps up out of his seat and aggravatingly asks “WHO is Gemstone?!” I stood up, smiled and waved and we had this immediate and shared respect for one another.

Text communication can be rewarding and provide friendship connections around the world. Gamers are a community… a subculture… diverse group of individuals who share a common ground. We understand the concepts of the games and experience socialization unlike any other. Roles and rules change and social stigmas are non-existent here. Young and old alike can get together and come away feeling like they’ve been through something unique where stereotyping does not occur.

Misconceptions…
We are not all junk-eating, neo-geeks, with prehistoric social skills. Well okay some are, but that is true for a lot of non-gamers too. Many gamers have successful careers and families outside of online activities and we are quite capable of *gasp* talking in public. It is about balance. To become immersed in a project is to be passionate. However, if it detracts from other aspects, that passion can become compulsion and wreak havoc on family relations.

Another misconception is that women don’t (or shouldn’t) game. Let’s face it, we do and we should. Many websites devote their attention to gaming “girlz” and their presence in the gaming community. What is most bothersome is that many males believe women are either playing to hook up with some guy, or they are needy, hideous-looking women who have no choice but to find solace in online relationships. The truth is, the majority of women who game, are there for the same reasons men are—to play.

Problems…
Text communication has obvious weaknesses, whether it is with gaming acquaintances, group interactions, or that special someone. Most online relationships carry certain elements of assumption and skepticism. The same assumption made by non-gamers is that only the lonely and socially inept are online and this holds true for those online too. Many general conversations lead to a question and answer trials more nerve-wracking than most interviews. It can be important to “prove” to someone that you are not a man masquerading as a woman or that you are simply… normal. Then there are those that always remain elusive and do not disclose anything remotely personal about their lives. It is up to the individual to determine their own boundaries and choose what they wish to disclose or not. If the extent of the relationship is to game with someone, then personal details do not matter. It is easy enough to game alongside someone who shares your passion and is enjoyable to play with.

It’s all about balance…