Is 8 the maximum number of incoming peer connections? The reference here for running the bitcoin daemon does not really clarify what maxconnections mean.


maxconnections=  Maintain at most  connections to peers (default: 125)


Is this the max connection for all inbound and outbound peer connections? Or is it just to one or the other? If I understand correctly, inbound connections are others trying to connect to your node for information (e.g. transaction) propagation, while outbound connections are your bitcoin daemon node connecting to others for information.

Here's another reference in one of the posted answers that stated 8 outbound peer connections is the max; it seems to imply that the number of outbound peer connections is unconfigurable. Furthermore, that maxconnections only controls the number of inbound connections and not outbound. Is this true? 

I don't intend on being connected to by other peers (this decision is rather selfish, but that's besides the point), so I've blocked port 8333. I believe, effectively, blocking port 8333 will only stop peers from connecting to me (stops inbound) and not me connecting to peers (does not stop outbound). Is this right? 

What implications do blocking port 8333 have on my bitcoin daemon from getting transactions? Does it get less transactions or get transactions slower? I've been noticing that for relatively long stretches of time (e.g. 20 seconds or so), sometimes I see no transactions come through.
The reference here for running the bitcoin daemon does not really clarify what maxconnections mean.
Furthermore, that maxconnections only controls the number of inbound connections and not outbound. Is this true?

maxconnections counts both inbound and outbound connections. If you have 8 outbound connections, you can only have 117 inbound connections.

Is 8 the maximum number of incoming peer connections?

No, 8 is the maximum number of outgoing connections.

I believe, effectively, blocking port 8333 will only stop peers from connecting to me (stops inbound) and not me connecting to peers (does not stop outbound). Is this right?

Yes, that's correct. Also, there's a setting to do this without firewall software - set listen=0

What implications do blocking port 8333 have on my bitcoin daemon from getting transactions? Does it get less transactions or get transactions slower?

That could happen in theory, but in my experience it still works pretty well.