So in the first week, the mods out there are already dizzying to look at. There used to be a number of sites or lists devoted to the Must Have mod collections. Are there any going now or planned? I wish I had the time to pour over all the great mods coming out, but I just want to know the ones everyone is getting because it obviously makes Skyrim play, look, or sound better!

Must have mod lists aren't usually made until the community is well established. We've only been at it a week and we don't even have a tool set yet.

Must have:

Improved Map
360 Hotkeys , if you use that.

Edit:
Neither of these is grabbing any attention on that top 100, but they are the best as of right now.

with the 360 hotkeys, you'll probably end up just yanking that .txt file and modding it to your own preference.
so just pick one.
One of them, the author(s) took the time to add their own notes in it to help guide you along.. find one of those.

skyrimnexus.com click on "top 100"

that will give you an idea of the current mods to get

Despite what others will say and what Skyrim Nexus says, there are no truly must have mods yet. We don't get any until the Creation Kit comes out.

"Must Have" is subjective anyway, what one person's "must Have" mod, could be a mod that another person would never use, and vice versa.

You get 10 people in the forum to make a 'must have' mod thread, and you'll end up with 10 different lists.

Usually Realism and/or hardcoe Mods end up on a must-have list, and I never use them, I use my own judgement and click on mod Categories (at skyrimnexus) then
pick which category I'd like to change in the game, and then browse that category for mods that sound interesting and/or what I'd like them to do.

This. There are tons of must have lists for Morrowind and Oblivion, and most of them have little in common.

There are already quite a few out, and many more on the way. The CS is necessary for a lot of the mod ideas/requests, but it hasn't stopped some very creative and technically skilled folks from coming out with so much stuff so fast.

Using the term mod pretty loosely. Almost everything on there is either a vanilla texture that's been upscaled with a sharpen filter, a save game, or a FXAA profile. I suppose there's somebody on the planet for whom those are "must have", but that's probably not what the OP meant.

I don't see any must-have mods yet either. There's really only a few tweaks I have that I think most people would enjoy. The first lets you zoom closer on the map, the second increases the distance at which you can hit a target using archery, the third restores the Oblivion method of arrow arcing, and the last is self-explanatory. None are my work, they were all discovered by other people.

This to the end of Skyrim.ini:

[MapMenu]fMapWorldMaxHeight=130000.0000fMapWorldMinHeight=4000.0000[Actor]fVisibleNavmeshMoveDist=12288.0000

This to the [Combat] section of Skyrim.ini:

f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.0f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.0

This to [Display] in SkyrimPrefs.ini:

bTreesReceiveShadows=1bDrawLandShadows=1

Now, that's good stuff there! Thanks!

Two more that I use (pretty self-explanatory):

[GamePlay]bShowFloatingQuestMarkers=0

[Interface]bShowCompass=0

Personally, I would add the no-level-cap to any must-have mod lists.
http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1288057-req-no-level-cap/page__gopid__19427909#entry19427909
(this mod will probably be updated when bugs are found, but eventually I'm betting this will be the best mod for anyone seriously playing this game)

The guy who made the "Duke Patrick" archery mods recommended 0.7 for both variables in another thread. You might want to try those.

f1PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7f3PArrowTiltUpAngle=0.7

I just got done making a list.. Do people not read front pages anymore? =/

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1288156-wip-compilation-of-mods/

That's why I never spend the energy and just tell people to search the nexus.

If they can't be bothered to search the nexus for mods THEY Want, they sure aren't going to bother reading or searching the forums.