Seems like much of the strife (and noise) on the newbie channel revolves around new players having their feelings hurt by being told, "This isn't a chat channel."

Possible solution:

Code it so the first time a player says something on the newbie channel they get a short 2-3 line echo informing them that the channel is a) not for chatting, b) not for assembling groups, c) OOC, d) intended only for game-play related questions.

Might help some people avoid making the mistake of misusing it and getting slapped down.