I'm sure this has probably been suggested before, but (I'll be blunt) I'm too lazy to go and find them :D How about a universal mod manager for IPB? I know there was a mod a while back (I haven't used IPB since it turned to the dark side [ie since you had to pay for it]) that let you manage your mods and just copy and paste something from a text document and it'd modify the files for you. I say that, if something like this came with the IPB it would be awesome. And maybe even a website supported by IP that hosts all these mods and could notify the board owner if an update comes out.

Cheers,
Morello

Unfortunately, this requires the mod AUTHORS to utilize the system, which many won't. ;)