(Also posted in a similar, recent, thread.)
Maybe we should create a "recommended mods" sticky thread or wiki page (UESP?) for all the new guys. Although there's a lot of disagreement on what
categories of mods are essential, it seems to me that there's a high degree of consensus amongst the longtime community members on what is essential
within a given category (UI overhauls, lore-friendly quest additions, item graphics replacers, etc.)
That same thread/wiki page should also state where the most recent version of a given mod can be found, what thread to go to for help or bug reports, and the development status of the mod. (It would be a "mod index" of sorts.) For example, who else knew that Robert's Female 1.3 and Male 5.2 just came out a few days ago? How can a newbie know what OOO and MMM do, that they are still under development, and that Kragenir's Death Quest 2.12 just came out even though its thread title says 2.1 is the last version? How can a newbie wade through the 4 or 6 different versions of MMM, MOBS, etc. posted on TESNexus+Planet Elder Scrolls+TESAlliance+custom sites like Slof's and find the "right" one?
The key is, whatever form such a page takes, it needs to be updateable and monitored constantly by the community as a whole. That way, it won't become outdated like so many "must-have-mod" webpages have. I'd also recommend that we establish some ground rules on how to determine when to add (or remove) a mod. Something like this:
1. The community "votes" for 10 to 50 well-established mod authors - like kivan, Arthmoor, TheNiceOne, CorePC, etc. Each of them would become voters for the "recommended mods" list (provided they're willing, of course). (Alternatively, we could give everyone with a Disciple rank or higher on this board, or the equivalent on PES and TESAlliance, a vote.)
2. All the possible "categories" a mod can fall into would be defined by this group. (I could take a shot at this too.)
3. Depending on the size of each category, the mod authors would have 1 to 10 mods they could recommend as "essential" for that category. There would also be five extra "floating" votes they could apply to any category. And they would be able to veto one mod if desired.
4. The PRIMARY mod author cannot vote for their own mods. TheNiceOne can't vote on Useful Houses, sorry
5. The top voted mods would be added to the page. It would need to be a SHORT list - say, no more than 50 mods. The general community could update information about those mods, but could not add/remove entries from the list. (This would, of course, have to be monitored if it's on a wiki page.)
(BTW--if the consensus is that such a thing is a good idea, I could serve as Parliamentarian
)
» Wed Dec 14, 2011 8:04 am 
And once you get into gameplay, all bets are off. In fact, I can think of a lot of people who will completely endorse two incompatible and mutually exclusive mods, because they switch back and forth between them.
(And no slight meant to DarN, he's put a lot of hard work into interfaces for multiple games. This really is just a matter of taste. Also of functional console fonts.)
