Eternal newbie is an internet slang term for a person that behaves in an anti-social or destructive manner primarily by abusing some minor feature of the system such as spamming, internet troll, or vandalize online content. Such people often use so called leet speak and claim to have l33t 5k|llz (Elite Skills) when in fact everything they know they learned from someone else s website. It is often difficult to stop eternal newbies because they abuse a function that is necessary for legitimate users. Many mature users went through a phase in their development when they exhibited these behaviors, much like adolescence. The difference is that mature users grow out of that phase, an eternal newbie is an adults that acts like a 12 year old.
Such users may also be known as a n00b , which is leet speak for newbie .