• I detest needless whitepace.
• I'm literate.
• I have moderate MediaWiki-fu.

[edit] Dagmar's recommended mods

These mods are the things I usually install to my server and client because they provide needed fixes or add features which are useful without being too "cheaty". No, I'm not putting information on how to install each one here--that's something you should be able to figure out on your own. Learning through research and experimentation is good for your brain! Note: Just because I've listed them here doesn't mean they currently work if the client or server just updated so YMMV.

[edit] Client mods (for Survival Beta Client)

current for Beta 1.7.3

[edit] Graphical Fixes/Enhancements

Because I prefer a slightly higher resolution texture pack, my client needs to be patched to handle the slightly higher resolution. There's two ways to go about this, one slightly more intrusive than the other. The non-intrusive "sure-fire" solution is Xau's fairly straightforward patcher and will generally function properly in the presence of any other mods you may have installed, provided you run it after you've done all your client modding. Both of these mods have BetterGrass functionality as a setting (which changes the sides of grass blocks so that grass can be a contiguous surface on slopes).

• Xau's Patcher (forum link) also known as MCPatcher or "HD Texture Fix" - This is a patch utility which tweaks the client a bit so that it can handle 32x32 and higher resolution texture packs without showing you strange artifacts (graphical errors).

A far more iffy solution is to use OptiFine, which at the bare minimum gives you several more video controls and speeds up rendering in general, but can also make a multi-core system start doing a lot of important things in a multi-threaded fashion, which just murders a number of common bottlenecks. The code in OptiFine is quite advanced, but since it hooks into so many class files, there's a number of other mods (most of which should be obvious) that it isn't likely to be compatible with.

• [OptiFine], and since I've got a dual-core desktop with a pretty robust video card in it, specifically I use OptiFine 1.7.3_HD_F_MTL. Seriously, this mod smokes.

[edit] Texture Pack

Generally I am using one of the following permutations on more or less the same thing:

• "DokuCraft"(forum link) texture pack.
• The results of the [Dokucraft, The Saga Continues] [customiser], which is basically a web page that shows you most of the items in the texture pack individually, lets you pick which variant of each thing youd like, and then generates a shiny new texture pack just for you.

[edit] Useful Modifications

• [MPMenu] (sort of formerly SporkList) takes the Multiplayer Server entry boxes and replaces them with a very nice picklist, following the behaviour of the world select screen. Basically, it's an SMP address book "done right".
• [Risugami's ModLoader] is one of the "must have" mods for Minecraft, because so many other mods depend upon it being installed. Basically, it provides a mechanism for mods to hook into parts of the client indirectly, without replacing entire class files and creating a mess of conflicts. Also from that page, I generally grab Sign Tags because it basically gives signs some sprintf() functionality so that you can inspect exact values for some things (like the current light level).
• [Lahwran's Mods] is an assortment of various mods, the most important of which is a minimap. I'm pretty sure it requires ModLoader. Also from that page, the Worldedit Client-side Interface is a wonder to behold when using WorldEdit on my testbed server. It draws colored boundary lines for the selected map area over the environment itself, making region selection and modification vastly easier to do accurately.
• "X-Ray" is a mod a lot of people seem to get extremely bent out of shape, but those people don't do a lot of work with redstone. When you've just filled an underground tennis ball court with redstone dust circuitry, and it malfunctions, this is something that will keep you from going straight to your stash of TNT and giving up on it because you can see through whatever blocks you wish. Some people seem to think it makes finding ores easier, but after you've spent a bit of time looking around goggle eyed at just how much ore actually is buried around you, you'll realize it's just a matter of how much you dig, not where. It is actually listed on the Minecraft Forums, but hasn't been updated by it's author in some time--however, some sharp guy recompiled it to work with 1.7.3, which it does for sufficient values of "work". You can take peeks with it, but if you were to say... turn it on while you're in a moving minecart, your client will run wild and eat every bit of RAM on your machine (and then die). You have been warned.
• [TooManyItems] is another thing that's basically an inventory "cheat". If and only if you are an op or have access to /give commands on an SMP server, then it will work on a multiplayer server. Otherwise, it works just fine in single-player mode for when you need a lot of something (or something rare) in a hurry and you're just trying to solve a technical problem.

[edit] Server Mods

current for 1.7.3

• [SysV Init Script] isn't really a mod, it's what I use to start and stop the server under Linux. Progress is still underway on a rewrite to eliminate the use of GNU screen (which at the moment works, but there's just a few things I'm trying to make perfect). Bugs can be reported to me. Supports Bukkit, which can be optionally disabled by adding BUKKIT_MOD=no in front of ./rc.minecraft start (as can all the other settings).
• [Bukkit] [build 1000] - This is the do-all end-all master server modification which does literally nothing but provide an API for other server mods. Everything below here requires it. You'll need to rename it to craftbukkit.jar and stick it in the home directory of the minecraft role user (along with minecraft_server.jar) for the above server startup script to see it.
• [WorldEdit 4.6] - This lets you make sweeping, root-like changes to your SMP map.
• [CommandBook] - Sort of a few "last minute" things like an MOTD for the server.
• [Citizens 1.0.9d] - Lets you add NPCs but is irritatingly undocumented when it comes to a great many things beyond just making them show up.
• [Permissions 3.1.6] - You just want this one if you install anything that adds any kind of extra commands to the server. The configuration syntax is a pain, but it lets you restrict/provide access to pretty much anything to any user. Warning: It has no friendly OOB config. In the default configuration, it won't let anyone do anything so read the documentation that comes with it before you install it.
• [Runecraft 2.8.1] - This gets me secret doors and teleport/waypoint pads. Your mileage may vary. I disable almost all of the rest of it's functionality using Permissions.