To help all those neophytes out there I've made a list of the things u need to know if u ever wanna become a l33t h4x0r .... I did this because maybe if the neophytes have some sort of check-list to follow then maybe they wont turn into script kiddies.
or at least, if the turn into SKs then wont be us that helped them.

01. Learn the hacker ethics and nethic (some times also called the netiquette)
02. Become part of the community. Become part of the culture.
03. Never ask questions if u think u can find the answer urself...
04. Don't abuse the knowledge u have, and especially don't teach someone who u know will only abuse it.
05. Don't abuse the law, use the law! and fight for ur rights if necessary!
06. Ask urself: What is footprinting?
07. Ask urself: What is social engineering?
08. Ask urself: What is enumeration?
09. Ask urself: Privilige escalation, hmmm, how do i do that?
10. Help the community and it will help u. Even when every1 else just leave u to rot.
11. Learn about *nix systems, and windows systems. (learn about the system u r interested in, but u still need to know about windows and *nix)
12. Don't just learn to setup networks. Learn to setup SECURE networks.
13. Get good programming skills: C/C++, Perl, PHP, ASM, etc. (which ever u will be needing the most)

TO ALL THE NEOPHYTES: We have all been beginners, but we have always been hackers! Before u start filling urself with all the info of the world, ask urself: Why? What is my purpose? Do my interests stride in the right direction?
Maybe u wanna break the law and become a cracker (a black hat hacker), but decide now! there r places for crackers to go too, so go there instead of here if that's what u wanna be.
Ohh yea, btw. u don't need to learn all this... But if u do u sure will be l33t!

TO ALL THE BRILLIANT HACKERS AT AO: plz submit more for the list (i probably forgot a lot) and if i have said something wrong, plz correct me... i made this thread because it's time we make the distinction between a hacker and a cracker very clear! we can't allow ourselves to be looked upon as criminals just because one of us, who every1 else thought to be a hacker, in reality was a cracker.