zomg thats a long 2ed post and who needs a tutorial for games. If you've played games as long as I have you know where the "fire" button is.

Just want to share my own newb story. I started playing tremulous about a week ago. On the first day, when I was playing a human and finally managed to put some bullets in some alien, I bought a grenade. I did not even know how to buy other weapons (I hadn't noticed the "sell" button yet), but I thought that was just because I did not have enough creds. I somehow thought that the grenade was a weapon like a rifle, and that I had to switch to it (like I could switch to the blaster). Of course, when I did that, I threw the grenade. Only problem: I was still right besides the armory, so I just threw a grenade in our base, damaging much of the stuff. At the next second I got banned for a week from the server for being a deconner. Now I agree that deconners completely destroy the game for everybody, but there's a difference between an honest mistake and an evil desire to ruin other people's game. Anyway, perhaps a good idea to add a warning label to those grenades: "WARNING: ignites and throws immediately when you press the 'use' button!" 

On a side note: perhaps it would be a good idea to somehow have an expected experience level annotation for servers. Like a server for 1337 players only, for experienced players only, for not-total-newb players only and one for total newbs. On the 1337 server you could get banned for being a newb; on the newb server you get banned for being too good (except if are there to teach newbs instead of slaughter them). That way you could let people learn by experience, without destroying the game for better players. Of course you would still want mixed servers where a healthy mix of all kinds of players is playing...

I'm not saying theres anything wrong. What I'm saying that his post is long and I am surprised because it is his 2ed post and normally new members (unless making an application) don't real wright a lot.

I like the "application letter" idea. It is the most original method I've ever seen to motivate kids to learn how to spell correctly 
(a very noble cause given the current degree of illiteracy)

I'm probably about 10 years older than the average new member on this forum. My job is more or less to write - I'm a PhD student so my job is basically writing papers. That probably explains my failure to post short messages. As you can see, I'm working on it.

By the way, please correct my grammar or spelling if you notice any mistakes. English is not my mother tongue; in fact it's my third language after Dutch and French - although by now I'm probably much more fluent in English than in French.

PhD in what?

Computer science. See my web site (http://www.cs.kuleuven.be/~jon/) for more information.

Looks nice - but you need to add Tremulous to the games links :>

Comp Sci PhD?  Well done.  I entered college looking for a degree in CS, and after three years pursuing it (and two and a half years working for the people who kept the campus network and servers running) I decided it wasn't what I wanted after all.  I enjoy the programming, sure - there's still a thrill for me of writing something and seeing it run well.  But I got more enjoyment out of setting up new systems, network diagnosis, systems administration.. all things which I wouldn't really be "qualified" to do when I left with my degree.

So almost seven years ago I got a job doing just that, and haven't looked back since.  But working in a department that educates others for their PhD (Astrophysics), I see how difficult the process can be.  Good luck to you :>

very nice (we need a smile with the thumbs up sign with it) are you sure you not to smart to be playing tremulous go out and find a cure for cancer!!!