I think many people who come late to IE modding are in for a culture shock of sorts. Almost all other modding communities (for pretty much any non-IE game) revolve around the Nexus, so people are used to having a central repository (and discussion platform) that hosts all relevant mod content in one place. Think of the Nexus what you will, from a consumer- and convenience perspective it is great.
To get an overview of interesting and up-to-date IE mods, it is necessary to investigate the content of several communities (at least G3, SHS, PPG, BD forums) and even then there are likely things you would miss (e.g., Tweaks and Tricks mod).
That reminds me: i wonder how many modders have never heard of Magnus' modding tools Happy IE and Golem, simply because they are hosted on the somewhat obscure BGforge website?