I used to have a sticky post up somewhere about dealing with un-linked players (basically, don't give them anything except food) ... but it seems to have moved somewhere / been deleted.
It was agreed with by a lot of members due to the number of griefers coming on and being given armour, weapons and tools by well-meaning members who just were trying to help a new player. This unfortunately led to lots of damage to properties and attacks on players. Therefore, it was agreed that un-linked players should not be given anything except food.
Please note, that if you are trying to find out if a player is linked or not, you may have to ask them to prove it by logging out and back in again. This is because a player can log-in as unlinked, but then link their account without any notification in the chat window ... so by logging out and back in, it will then show them as linked, rather than them just saying they are