Hello I just purchased the old xcom games from the recent sale and I would like some recommendations for mods that I could start with. Also does anyone know if the sites download portal works? because when I googled openxcom it said to not use the portal and use the forum to get the mods instead, any help would be greatly appreciated.

They have a new mod hoster now. Downloads work again.
Announcement: https://openxcom.org/2018/09/do-use-the-new-mod-portal/

Awesome, that's great news! :)

I am a active modder on OXC, if you want to get the basics to making your own mods checkout my website, i am working through the notes to update each page to the current tools that are used.

http://openxcommods.weebly.com/how-to.html

Also i am working on a new mod call OXC-Factions which is taking the best parts of both UFO defence and TFTD and bring them together in an alternate time line, check it out here:
https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,6784.0.html