[EricH]

Probably the best way to give rep to a newbie who makes a mistake is to give neutral rep. Neutral is kind of like a warning, so it's like "hey, I did something wrong. I need to follow this guy's advice," or something like that. If the advice/warning is not followed, then consider negative. I mean, the guy is new, probably does not have the rules memorized or just simply made an error, and then someone hits him with negative, he's not going to like it. If he gets neutral, well, "a word to the wise is enough." He's not likely to make the same mistake again for a while, if at all.