Noob bashing is ALWAYS OK.
(j/k)
No really, it shouldn't be an issue, if someone has a question they should be able to ask it here without fear of being flamed no matter their post count (which is meaningless anyways). But someone who doesn't search for the question first is likely to be told to search for it, and a lot of times it's done nicely. Sometimes it's not, but a lot of times, people are told POLITELY that this question has been asked, and that running a search will find you the answer you need. People do this to minimize the number of duplicate or near-duplicate threads. The idea is, that the newbie will search for his answer, find it, and then delete his original post.
But then, after being told to search, a lot of times, the newbie comes back and starts talking trash! And then they complain when they get flamed.
Yes, flaming shouldn't be happening here, but not everyone has the patience to deal with some of the people on these boards. Flaming is an unfortunate part of ANY message board, so there's only 2 main ways to reduce it:
1. Ignore it. Be the better person and don't flame back. This will never happen, so:
2. Delete it. Have the mods delete either the entire thread, or the specific posts that are derogatory. It's starting to be done by the mods, especially t3ase.