I think that now all we have to go by is date of registration. A few years back, and even last year in some cases, newbies were recognizable because of obvious lack of knowledge of how the forums work. But now that has totally changed. In the passed 2 years the forums comunities multiplied by X10 but the forums formats has stayed between the few that make them, and even that became more similr to the other. So now a newbie to a forum is coming from another forum, so it's only that he talkes in a different place with other guys, but in the rest it's the same. THey know how it's done, and can become known really fast (BreakaBone comes to mind
)