I do appreciate seeing that some of you are acknowledging courteousy is the best practice.
Yes, I too noticed the massive increase in one paragraph posts. And yes, it is irritating. But to ask someone to take a hike instead of referring them to the rules of posting on the threads is pompous and belittles new posters.
As for thick skin, I am a thin-skinned woman, it's my blessing to be this way (NOW has never brainwashed me). But a Spine of Steel can be of tremendous value.
Newbies will either weed themselves out when they realize their posts are not being responded to or they stick around just enough to notice that there are correct and polite ways to post.
Newbies told to take a hike will, however, go running to other sites exclaiming what a bunch of snobs are at Free Republic, and with the momentum this site has got going for itself, word of mouth needs to be kind words.
A lot of times, a newbie posting (what should be a response on a related thread as) a vanity gets exactly that response. That's okay with me. We're proud of FR, and it's solid, we DON'T accept advertising, we fund it ourselves--we pay our own way. Newbies posting one-line vanities are sometimes -- not always -- useless freeloaders. WE pay for the bandwidth to host them, and we aren't hurting for hits. WE pay for the expansion, the hardware and software. JR runs it, he started it, it's his place. He makes the rules. He's asked that people not start threads that are better posted as replies on existing threads, but some don't read. Juvenile attention-getting behavior, in my opinion.
The practice of calling a poster a "newbie" is about as edifying as calling a poster a troll.
The only worthy question is whether the post is worthy.
Any departure from this principle postpones the day when we will be taken seriously. When will the MSM really respect us? When we respect each other.