It's not like new members are neccesarily the only ones recieving flames. I've been here for almost 3 years and half of the community is still a dick to me.
The reason why they dislike new members is because, you know, they're still learning the ropes, and they're not as good as stuff as the veterans. Also, there's the pre-established idea that new members are completely clueless., so people analyze their posts with a much different style of analysis. For instance, if you read a post by Nestling, most people will think "Oh, it's that retarded guy who won't shut the hell up about his "sex" life and how much he hates certain groups of people", mostly because that's the reputation I've brought up onto myself. I could be talking about something completely unrelated, but people will view my posts as negatives just because of the reputation that I've given myself. On the flip side, if a well liked member of the community posts the same thing as I might have posted, it would be viewed with different eyes, as the reputation that they've built for themselves is much more positive. Now, newer members don't really have a reputation to judge off of, but people know that "new members" as a whole can generally be "noobs", and their posts are automatically viewed with a negative tone, of someone who is completely clueless. This causes people to go "HEY MAN YOU SUCK SDFGJKSLDFNHGLSDJNHFGJKLSDNFLJKNSDL WHAT A NOOB", just because of the reputation that they haven't even build yet. Also, "pwning noobs" really is a "great" way of boosting reputation. If someone can totally "pwn a nub", then they've suddenly shown that they're a badass or something, as they can show dominance. This will get people to like them, and bring them to a higher social status, which leads to more friends, more respect, and the ability to totally say anything they want without being thrown down by the community.
That's the mentality of like, all of the internet, and due to the attitude of a LOT of people I see that are active on the internet, there's not really much that can be done about this except tolerate it and keep the happiest face you've ever had in your life.
I've been taking crap left and right for 6 years, because people think I'm stupid. Because people don't like the way I type. Because people think my interests aren't good. Because people will look at me and see a pathetic 10-16 year old whimp who refuses to change his attitude for the interests of others. I've been banned from plenty of forums for this, and had my abilities limited from others. Often times, I've been stuck in a lonely corner by myself, simply because I've refused to stop being myself. This is what most newbies come in as. They come in as themselves. They ragequit because they don't want to take all of the crap that the "molded" community throws at them so they can become more like the mold of person they want to see. They want to stay the way they are, and for the benefit of their sanity, they choose to leave, instead of spending so much time trying to live their lives normally on a place where, according to the veterans of the community, they don't belong.
Of course, I'm a complete idiot and I'm oblivious to the fact that I could just leave and avoid all of the tears I've shed because of rude forum members. I'm oblivious to the fact that if I had just left, I wouldn't be trying to drown myself in the clogged middle school sink. I'm oblivious to the fact that had I just simply decided to stay in real life, instead of trying to live in this fantasy world, my life would probably be much different then it is now. On the flip side, my perseverence has paid off, as I've made so many new friends and learned so many new things from being on websites and forums like these for so long. So, can there be no compromise? Can new members be allowed to learn the ropes of a community and possibly change their lives without being shot by years and years of the fire of veteran users's mouths?
Obviously not.
The funny thing is that when I post, I don't actually think about what I'm typing about, so what I see as an inspirational message of hope and aspiration can actually be just a conglomarate of my horny 16 year old mind.