I think your only option at the moment is to use the Pandora's Battery method to downgrade your fw to an exploitable one (i.e. 1.5). The problem with that is you will need access to an already modded PSP in order to create a Pandora's Battery. As far as I know there is sadly no other option currently available to downgrade from 3.71.
You want to aim to downgrade to 1.5 and then you can upgrade to any custom fw. I recommend 3.52 M33-4 as the best most stable custom fw (IMG:
style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) (I'd avoid 3.72 M33 for now if you have a fat psp). Just google some of the key words in this post if you need more info.
I know what you mean about the psp homebrew scene. Compared to the xbox homebrew/hacking scene its horrible. Like you say its mostly 14 year old kids trash talking in the forums and any information/tuts are scattered all over the net. There are a couple of really good sites around so just keep looking. I'd link you to a couple of my favourites but many have links to copyrighted material which is against the rules here.
This post has been edited by sabbath_dude: Oct 3 2007, 11:14 PM