It seems there is some value to being able to identify people who have experience with this thing, but many people (myself included) don't like level names. Randy's 6/2 12:04pm post gave me an idea: suppose you can get an icon after 30 (or whatever) posts? I'd guess that most active posters would take advantage of it. The only distinguishing feature of a "newbie" post would be absence of an icon. That isn't derogatory and wouldn't be 100 percent accurate anyhow because some experienced posters would be icon-less also.

The number of "How do I get an icon?" posts would probably level off around where "How do I get to be a Member?" posts were.