I joined in 2000 when the site was very active. I read as much as I could before diving into a 502 crate motor project that later was transformed into a B&M 250 setup. Very successful and reliable package not because I knew what I was doing but because I asked enough questions to get the right engine builder, oiling (coolers, pumps), crossovers, drives and other assorted things. Could not have had as much success on my own. Pretty sure I had to rely on the hodge podge info available (now, not then) from FB it would have had an unsuccessful project.

I think the increasing cost of boating has priced most of the younger generation out of the market.

I always hated the “UsE tHe SeArCh FuNcTiOn” post. Just seems mindless. If it’s not an easily searchable question, I wouldn’t have posted it. Besides that, I’d love to put a 731 cam in an engine…. Just the problem is, it’s discontinued. Technology has changed and there’s got to be something later and greater. One can find a hundred threads from 10-20 years ago that talk all about it. As if that information is gospel and can’t be improved upon.

You're 100% correct. I'm 33 years old I'm just running a single 500efi in a 26' boat, and a lot of my friends cant even fathom the money that we spend on a toy. Which is miniscule compared to a lot of guys on here.

Though it does seem that sub-forum searching has improved some, Google is your friend for searching OSO (search topic and "offshoreonly" does pretty well).

731 cam - it's still a great cam for the majority of what people are doing. It's no longer made, yes, but the specs are readily available by (wait for it) searching. Then you take those specs to your cam grinder of choice. Bam - you have a 731 cam. Personally, I like the 621

If you do a lot of reading, you'll find that things haven't changed all that much over the years because the parts just work. Tweaks are made for aftermarket cylinder heads, but for those cases, you're dealing with very specific inputs to come up with the right parts to support - those things are talked about, but more times than not, you're looking at custom-ground cams to take advantage of a cylinder head's flow characteristics. Sure, something off the shelf will work (and they do to a point), but you may end up having a lot of the advantage of those high-dollar heads going right out the exhaust.

Ask questions and be specific. Still lots of very knowledgeable people here to answer. That's my thought anyway.

Notice when you do a search on google about a topic the results from forums tey seem to be 10 plus years old.
Facebook is a $hit show and you can`t search topics and thats killing google search results.

Facebook sucks.

I can get pretty decent results with Google if I search specifically - really depends on how often the site is harvested.

Fair point for sure. It's why I don't mind resurrecting some of the older threads when new info, solution or tech has a meaningful contribution. An update of sorts, that often hers some interactive traction.

I also think alot of us younger guys dont start threads because the negative comments arnt worth dealing with. I've been debating of making a thread about my build for the 2 years its been going on, but wanted it to be completed and water tested so people can see the whole start to finish without nit picking it apart, like i said before ive had alot of advice and help from some longtime members but negative comments dont help with guys wanting to start new build threads. FB is 20x worse. This site has by far the best technical data.

Probably time for a website refresh/rebrand.

Outboardsonly.com
whatsasterndrive.com
rememberwhenyoucouldaffordaboat.com
performanceboatarchive.com