> First of all, using "noob" like that is offensive. Everyone's a "noob" at some point. And if that's how you talk and treat people, I probably wouldn't want your help.

Unfortunately, a word needs to exist that stands in for this:

"Person, who isn't so different than myself when I started, with little experience who is mistake prone due to the lack of experience, who's mistakes creates disruption and often great expense at the most inconvenient times."

Being offended by noob just makes communication more difficult, and does not really change anything. We've had all kinds of much more offensive names for the same thing (many other names imply race, social status and so on). noob seems to be about as offensive as rookie, but one syllable less.