Newb = The original alteration of the term "newbie", which originated in the 1990's when online gaming became popular.
n00b = The alteration of "newb", which teenagers developed, again in the 1990's, by people playing some of the original massively popular online "First Person Shooter" games such as "Delta Force" and "Counter Strike", to try and look cool. This carried on into other games as well, but Delta Force and Counter Strike were among the first to use it (I was there, at age 16, and shook my head at the time out of how people liked to copycat others and how fast these words and slang spread). One other "word/slang" came out of these first popular internet video games as well, such as "1337" (Read: "leet", as in elite). These spread like wildfire, and you still see them today.
It has nothing to do with chess, but is an example of how online gamers have "evolved" their lingo, much like the term "PWNED", which one gamer accidentally typed while trying to talk down to a fellow gamer (he meant to say "I just OWNED you!" but hit the P by mistake) and for some reason it caught on with other players and, in modern day internet lingo, went "viral". You can also Wikipedia the phrase "ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!", which caught on just like the "pwned" thing, but originated from a poorly translated Japanese to English video game.
I recently posted on the N00BS thread, but people started talking about non-n00b related (or even chess-related, after I think about it) stuff. So I wanted to know: what are your opinions on n00bs and newbs?
Definitions:
Newb: Someone who is bad at something, but only because they're new to it. Newb is short for newbie. Newbs are welcomed and embraced in their quest to become pros, or the polar opposite of newbs.
N00b: Someone who disrespects chess, doesn't like it, adamantly asserts the blatantly ridiculous falsehood that checkers is in any way, shape, or form superior to chess, and plays chess with "getting out the horse" (for those who don't speak n00bish: capturing the knight) and sandwich airstrikes. They also knock over people's kings and proclaim in a loud and obnoxious and GEICO Hump Day commercial-esque manner "check-MATE!"
Thoughts, anyone? FYI, nobody who is a member of chess.com is a n00b. Except for the tool that posted giberish on my profile page.
Please note: Don't bother mentioning in the comments how pointless this thread is. We all already know.