The blog + podcast combo is a cool idea, I don't really to podcasts but 5by5 rekindled that interest so I might check it out.

I usually just follow or fork projects I end up using, Instapaper and/or bookmark the rest or just google when I need it.

Some projects maintain uncurated lists of packages[1] but it's easy to narrow it down. Open them all up in tabs and then eliminate. Number of followers & forks is often a good indicator of health, commits is the next page to check for signs of life. Also issues. Be your own "curator" and evaluate a few options, many libs are easy to try out.

Readme, docs and code also count of course, that's a given.

[1] https://github.com/joyent/node/wiki/modules

(Yes, CPAN is still unique after so many years)

1) It should be one (and only one) location when you can find every module/plugin/library written in %language%

Hmm, should I continue?

Yes, obviously what you describe you would nice. But in the meantime, a few scattered sources are better than nothing.

This is what I get for trying to be helpful...