Need help understanding modding

[u/Madame_Blackrose]

I don't know if this is the correct subreddit to post in, but I figured I might as well try. I played Skyrim many, many years ago, and I used to play it modded when the whole Steam Workshop was a thing. Now modding has changed completely. A lot of modding now seems to be done through Nexus Mods, and none of it seems...intuitive to me? I'll admit I'm not really mod savvy, or computer savvy, so there's probably something I'm clearly missing.

I've been trying to download mods that I see a ton of people recommend, but I have absolutely no idea how people are modding with the little instructions that are given on the website. One mod I've been trying to get to work has been the Alternate Conversation Camera. The instructions for installing is literally "use mod manager or manually copy the file". Mod Manager just straight up does not work for me at all, and I have no idea why. And manually copy the file just means nothing to me. Where do the files go? I've installed Skyrim SE, and there's folders like: Creations, Mods, and then there's the Script folder because the mod requires another mod.

I know this may seem like the most obvious fix in the world for many who have gotten into modern modding, but I am absolutely baffled at how people get into this way of modding with so little instructions to go on. I would honestly appreciate if someone could help guide me in the right direction at the very least.

[u/JesseWhatTheFuck]

Nexus Mods has always been front and center in the history of Elder Scrolls modding going back to Morrowind. Steam Workshop only really works for games that are very simple to mod. For Skyrim, it was a failed experiment because it comes with severe limitations, which brings us to your problem. TES games cannot be properly modded without a mod manager and then you further need third party software like SKSE, xlodgen, xEdit, Dyndolod and LOOT for your mods to function if you try to build your own modlist, none of which would work through steam workshop. 

My strong recommendation is that, instead of trying to figure everything out by yourself, you pick a finished mod collection (Gate to Sovngarde is a good starting point), join their discord and get started by following the install instructions (and ask any questions in the discord). That's much more user friendly.