I mean without having to submit an email address?

I'm not getting a plugins.txt file in my appdata/local/fallout4 directory

I'm on a fresh install and would prefer to install mods and then start into a game. I've heard somewhere that you need to play the game to a certain point before the plugins.txt file will generate? Is that true?

I want to install and run mods without having to run a mod manager or Bethesda's "kosher" middleware.

You should be able to adjust the load order at the play screen once the game loads. That should generate whatever is needed for the mods to run. This as far as I know will work anytime since the game reads what esps and esms that are in the data folder upon launch. So there is no worry, you can activate anything through the games mod organizer.

I have never, not ever, launched fallout 4 without mods already being installed. I may have launched the game once through steam...but that was by accident and I quickly shut it down and opened it proper with F4SE. I'm not sure why you don't want the assistance of a mod manager/organizer but to each their own...with my 255 mods...I wouldn't dare tackle load order from scratch. Good luck and hope this helps.

As long as it's not proprietary, then I will give it a try. I'll take your advice and try out F4SE.

Thanks for the advice you guys.

You can run without any kind of mod manager. But I certainly don't recommend it. You need a way to sort your load order, and Fallout's in built load order isn't great at doing that.

Are all of your directories sorted out properly or something?