Sample:
n0nce's Steel Washer Backup jig
Oh wow--I know I merited him for that post, but I only skimmed through the thread, and now that you brought it back up again I think I'm going to go back and do a more close reading of it. Ideas like that one are starting to intrigue me these days. And yeah, I'd agree with you about n0nce's contributions.
Those other members mentioned in the OP I'm not that familiar with except KingsDen, and frankly if we're voting for Newbie of the year, I wouldn't consider him to be a viable candidate. Just my opinion.
I nominate:
KingsDen for his hunger to learn. I'm attracted to those that want to learn as I tend to learn from their quest as well. Good luck to everyone.
Having a strong desire to learn doesn't necessarily make a member a good candidate for NoTY, and that post of his you quoted was about 3x what it should have been based on the points he was trying to make--plus it was written in English broken just enough that it was frustrating to read.
When I see posts like those, I immediately think "merit fisherman", whereas the post LoyceV quoted from n0nce was original and probably took a lot of time and effort to write.