Returning To Warframe, How Do I Get Up To Date With All The Things ?

[Zemoch]

Hey guys! I'm sorry in advance if this isn't the place or there are posts i should have read before posting but i'm not really the forum guy.So here's the deal I haven't played warframe since the gradivus dillema event aaaand turns out a lot of stuff happened and i'm really out of it what's going on and stuff.
So i have a few questions towards players that are up to speed with things :D

1. Alerts
I used to have this add-on for Chrome for the warframe alerts which doesn't work anymore.Is there any other new way i can be aware of an alert without actually going ingame ? I'm not always in the mood for warframe but i don't want to miss nice alert rewards , even more now with the tactical alerts incoming.

2.Clans
I never had much interest in clans, i was in a small one like 10 guys newly founded didn't do much in it.Was disbanded when i came back.Do clans need active participation in something ? Can someone explain the basic things i need to look into about clans ? 

 

3.Fun weapons.
The biggest factor in my love for warframe is that i can use melee weapons.That is my love.But come on i want fun to use ranged weapons too! Not just a classic rifle pew pew and that's it.When they introduced the paris i was like fuuck yeah a bow :O Sooo yeah Can you guys suggest any weapons for the pistol and rifle slots that are fun to use ? Even if weak stat-wise i care more about having fun playing the game than dealing the most dmg possible.

4.Mods
What's the most efficient way to farm some mods and maybe get some rare ones ? Most importantly i don't have any of the stance mods and i must have them all right now :D So how do i go about acquiring those ?

Any tricks of the trade of being a current day tenno will also be helpful.I started way back in closed beta but i have been on play a lot and not play at all periods since then.And the not play at all periods have been kinda long.And coming back from one i feel like i never played this game for the first few days, after that i just feel like a noob :D

[FrostBittenHero]

Wiki

[Rakshal]

Wiki and patch notes.

[Implodingbanana]

for alerts you can try the warframealerts on twitter

 

the majority of clans will require you to be active at least 4-5 times a week or so. they should have reminded you to contact the leaders if you are going away for a while.

 

as for weapons...it's really up to you. the silva&aegis  and jat kittzag are pretty fun to use.

 

mods is a harder thing to explain so i recommend the wiki for that :http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/Mods

 

you can visit the warframe wiki for further info:

http://warframe.wikia.com/wiki/WARFRAME_Wiki

[Zemoch]

The idea was to get the most important aspects which i need to look into so i don't have to read the whole wiki ... and i'm pretty sure not everything is explained nicely there. But ok ,thanks to thecool for at least not saying "wiki" i guess . Jat kittzag looks fun, silva and aegis was already on my list.
Didn't really want to bother with twitter but if that's the only way then no choice.