Makes you wonder how most of us managed to get into boating without killing ourselves before Al Gore invented the internet.
Personally, I think it's a mistake for a newbie to try to get meaningful information off the internet. All he or she will get are endless discussions containing opinions from people who he or she has no way of judging their credibility.
This is why I firmly believe-- regardless of the activity: boating, flying, hiking, fishing, off-road driving, you name it--- in searching out the information one needs in person from real live people who's credibility you can judge in person based on something other than what they typed on an open forum.
I use Al Gore's fancy ether box to find out where I can buy the toaster I want or what hotel is good to use in downtown Beijing, but I never use it to find out important stuff like what's the correct oil for my engine or what's the best rode and anchor to use for our boat in this region. For that info, I go to people I have learned of or searched out who I can determine for myself have the exprience and knowledge about the particular subject I'm interested in.
Forum's like this are great places to entertain ourselves bickering about anchors and rodes and hull types and whatever. They are, in my opinion, terrible places for newbies to try and get the infomation one needs when one is starting out in an activity. If I were a newbie to boating and asked on this forum the kinds of questions we needed anwered when we started out, I'd be scared to death to even consider getting a boat because I'd become convinced that whatever we did, it would be horribly wrong in somebody's opinon.
Fortuantely we deliberately didn't use the internet when we decided to get into cruising, and our boat selection and boat buying experience was terrific as well as being a hell of a lot of fun. And we got exactly the right boat for our needs at the time.