I was wondering if it is really possible to make real mods like the ones made for Starcraft 1 (IE gundam century, STF, Zeji conversion, anything by Iskatumesk, etc) or is the known community just calling custom maps mods? Also how is the Galaxy editor compared to the SC1 modding tools (Datedit, Firegraft, ICE, and etc) in terms of power, UI, and its new features? Thank you for your time.

It is possible to create a total conversion with SC2, yes. However, it is my personal opinion that what people call "modding" in sc2 is in fact mapping, perhaps on a larger scale. Real modding involves things like exe edits and things that aren't generally possible with what the game comes with. So while you can do a lot more with SC2 than with SC1 modding, it isn't TRUE modding.

Galaxyeditor is more powerful, in just about every way. It has a pretty bad UI but is still very powerful. Just not as powerful as I'd like but then I'd be able to hax bnet2.

In galaxy edit you can mainly do (correct me if I'm wrong) everything any modding tool for sc1 could do and more.
You can change strings, buttons, add graphics, terrain, textures, heroes, weapons, models, sounds, actually everything. Therefore "Modding" like in SC1 is fused with mapping now.

What im really looking for in the editor is a way to run a true mod and not just data that is connected to a map; which i can take from Jack's comment is not probible anymore, or atleast at this point in time. I would of rather liked to run my custom EXEs instead of having to update every melee map i play with data files that (from my experience) make the total number of maps with custom data greater in physical memory then my one simple EXE file.

btw Devourer, a game map and a game modification by english definition cannot be the same thing because of there load order in a games engine.

just for the record: History of early SC modding

If/when someone makes an exe editing program, what you want will be possible. Currently though, custom exes and real modding aren't possible.

I only said that the modding of what you could do with SC1 by using tools like firegraft is now all doable with the editor. Did I lie there? OFC I am excluding MPQdraft.

i thought that having the 2 guys who invented SC1 modding working for blizzard work of made SC2 a great modding platform, guess ill have to take up mapping until a good exe editor comes out; All the galaxy editor reminds me of is SCM loader and firegraft plugins, although its more painful to work with then firegraft plugins.

You can make SC2Mod files which you add as dependencies to maps so that you can make a mod and have multiple maps made for that mod.