So far I've also noticed that there are a lot of newbie making thread on some of the board in this forum such as on the bitcoin discussion board and the beginners & help board. Like most newbies, creating new thread is their way of getting a lot of information about forum and bitcoin or anything else that confuses them. But yes, some of them are fake newbie or old member who hide behind newbie account for various purposes.
The price of bitcoin has influenced the high tide of newbie who come to the forum for various purposes. Another thing that made me think about them is that the information around bitcoin and its legality as a currency in several countries has increased the number of newbie finding this forum.
There are members who will reward a newbie just for trying to create a topic, not looking at the quality like in an essay, and it's normal if merit would be given only for a high-quality post there is no chance in hell a real newbie would get something.
Probably the only way of merit fishing they've managed to come up with. I miss
the fake newbie drama...
I think send merit to newbie who are able to make quality post or thread is the right thing because it will support them to achieve rank. But I really don't understand why most of them disappear after getting some post and merit. This is a strange thing in my opinion while newbie are always welcome in this forum.