Why can't y'all remember noob vs newb/newbie

[Vinupra-Rosa]

A key feature of languages is that words can easily change meaning and/or split depending on usage. Skirt and Shirt were once the same word. Shadow, shade, and shed were all once the same word. As a more recent example, Animé comes from Animation, being a reborrowing of the English word into Japanese as アニメーション, which was shortened to アニメ which yields the English word "Animé".

But despite "Anime" being derived from "Animation" incredibly recently, you don't generally use the word "Anime" in English to refer to Western Animation (which are usually called cartoons)-- it's used to refer exclusively to Eastern Animation.

Now, on to "Noob" vs "Newb"-- while both come from "Newbie", they have both acquired clear negative connotations due to their overuse as insults, with "Noob" being a more severe insult than "Newb", which is only slightly negative and can still be mostly neutral. "Newbie" on the other hand remains neutral to positive. Due to this differentiation in connotation, while it can be argued that "Noob", "Newb" and "Newbie" all refer to a general state of being new to something, they are not entirely interchangeable... at least in a broader internet context.

Nonetheless, due to the nature of slang and the internet at large, it's entirely possible that there are pockets of internet-space where the word "Noob" has yet to acquire a negative connotation. It's a distinction that's worth keeping in mind, but honestly being prescriptivist towards slang is a lost cause.