I don't see any reason to mix the mods forum with in progress and released mods. Most of us, use that subforum to see and download new mods. So having WIP post just showing a pic of a 3D box saying this is going to be a Porsche 911 someday, doesn't contribute anything to the community. And let's be honest, most of those WIP end up in nothing. Also another issue of having a public section of WIP mods is that new users (and not so new) beg for a download link. And then you have OP saying they won't finish the mod because too many people begged for it. Then why they let the comments open in the first place? But that a conversation for another thread. TL;DR: Use the mod sub forum for released mods. And have a parallel subforum for mods in development and only let certain people come in. Maybe they have to wait 3 months after the account was created to access. Also restrict access for people not behaving correctly but only for the Dev forum. But they'll still be able to download mods from the released mods forum.
Well if you want just the completed mods, then theres a whole different section called mods next to forums. Yes, you wont find the actually good WIPs there, but you wont find barely made 3d models either, so either spend your time searching through the WIP unfinished 3d models and good mods or just stick to the other section
You know very well that mods from the subforum won't get there due to licencing. So this has nothing to do with the section mod. This idea it's for improving the community, and not letting the mods creator get flooded with negative comments or requests.
if you scroll to the bottom of the list and select "thread display options", you can filter by what tag the thread has.
Generally not a bad idea but has one major downside, almost nobody would check the WIP mods section then because it would be slightly more complex to access, which could demotivate the modders.
That's good to know, but as I said before, it's not to only see released mods, it's to clean the forum a little and improve the community. Mods beggars also demotivates the modders. Having a separate forum would allow the mods to restrict access to only the WIP mods.