It appears everyone hates dirt, why? Well, they think Wood is the most important thing in minecraft, but its really dirt.

starting in classic or indev (i'm sure it was indev) the map loading would say "Soiling" or "Planting" this is because it is actually planting the saplings, not using a generator.

If one were to hack Dirt out of the game, trees would not spawn, and you would never be able to craft, and you'd walk across the stone plains, looking for trees.

I have seen all the Diamond Noobs (or, as they call themselves, "Pros") say dirt is useless, but dirt has even more uses than just in Indev to Alpha.

If one had no resources and spawned in a plains biome, they wouldn't find any trees, if its almost night time, making a dirt house would be very suitable. And useful.

Dirt is also needed for crops, so if your in a biome with no mobs in it, and you have tons of seeds, dirt is your best friend.

I use dirt all the time in SMP to save myself from monsters, and its been quiet useful, i know your going to say i'm a noob in the comments. But its still a useful resource.

And funny thing is, "Noobs" are probably people who played in Indev and knew that dirt houses would save you from peril. Actually, i've never seen a noob in SMP. So this "noob" thing is most likely a myth made up by Diamond Noobs.