We've been having a bunch of back-and-forth about treatment of newbies (enough that I won't bother to post links). I suggest that unless there are some real rules changes, nothing is going to simply change by a remarkable adjustment of group behavior -- not that it would be the end of the world if nothing changed, but there seem to be enough users that want things a bit different that maybe we should visit some of the rules.
People have been griping about rudeness to newbies. In my experience, many of these instances arise through comments. Right now, we have the option of flagging a comment as the only recourse, but I suggest that if the community can express displeasure in a slightly more public way, some may think a bit longer before being intentionally snippy in a comment. Clicking a downvote button would be one way to let a self-moderating community moderate itself.
I also suggest that it might be appropriate to cap the number of downvotes allowed for new users, at least for some time period, to allow the accumulated downvotes to make their points and give the newbie time to edit before he/she gets ganged up on. Perhaps if attempting the extended downvote, the late downvoter can be prompted to edit the question.....
A next step targets the newbies, reminding them about what a good question is, and that courtesy dictates that they minimally search the site on their topic before posting their question-- maybe even auto suggesting search terms, and doing the search, before giving them a "really post" prompt.
Lastly, if this is a real problem that we choose to deal with, perhaps a review of the question for low-rep participants (<10) PRIOR TO the question actually going up, is in order. This would be a last resort, I think.