Maybe these things can be arranged, and it would be nice, but I don't see why it's such as hassle to at least semi-politely direct a noob in the right direction when they start a new thread to ask a noob question. If this really bothers people, then why can't they just ignore these threads? It's as if some people (not sayin you- op,) only complain, or feel obligated to complain about noobs just so they can prop themselves up. It's how most people start out, they make mistakes, learn from them, and life goes on.... Nobody gets hurt. I'd like to find a way to prevent more senior members from intentionaly entering threads that they know are only going to frustrate them, just so that they can reply with destructive comments. I say all this because this is how I used to operate, but I know now that this is just the nature of forums such as this, and the internet in general. A lot of members are just kids who arent aware of proper internet/forum/blog etiquette. They'll never learn unless they are told how. When you take into consideration how many noobs there really are, only a small fracation of them are not searching, double posting, etc. Again, I'm all for an auto-pm for new members telling them about search and stickies.

 

All good ideas!
If you think it's a problem now, you should have seen it a few years ago!

One more thing I'd like to add, maybe to help out those people who get real emotional about noobs...
At this point, all topics have been covered and can be found by searching. Many of these topics seem like complete noob material to people who invest a lot of time participating on the site. But what is a forums site if there is not conversation? Do we want to be a reference guide, or a place for human conversation to take place about common interests and problems? We can't expect every new member who starts a thread to come equipped with all the knowledge that is contained in the stickies and search archives.