Hi,
Welcome to the forum, I'm a newbie myself and was in the same dilemma as you were in.
After much research, reading reviews, opinions, price comparisions, and more reviews a dob between 8-12 inches seems the way to go.
I haven't purchased my dob as yet, as I want to ensure my enthuisasm stays the same in 6 months time before I take the plunge. That said, I think I've read as much as I could about dobsonians to know thats where my money would go - if anything 2 things stand out the most about them is:
1. you get good 'bang for your bucks' for the apeture.
2. simple in concept and design, yet not necessarily compromising on quality.
One thing I have read time and time again is that there is no 'perfect' scope. Each design has its own merits, pros and cons. However the best scope is the one you will use, not one that becomes a tiresome chore to setup or lug around.
There is also a device called the Argo Narvis
http://www.wildcard-innovations.com.au/
It works for various types of scopes, including DOBS and the concept is very similar to a goto, although its more of a 'push to' system. Its certainly something worth purchasing later on if manual searching of DSO's etc become too much of an effort.
The Orion Dob. intelliscopes have a similar proprietary concept, but I like the idea the Argo Narvis as its an Australian product.
btw: how you thought about a pair of binoculars (eg, 15X70). You will be pleasantly surprised what you can see with those as opposed to the naked eye. They will also make a good companion to a telescope later on.
nb: I scoffed at binoculars, but seriously once you see thru them they are worth purchasing. The only downside is there weight.
Thats my 2 cents worth.
