While the core functionality is maintained a healthy but relatively restricted group of developers, the wider eco-system writing themes and plugins to add extra functionailty and design to the platform consists of thousands of coders and tens of thousands of plugins.
Because there are so many plugins it can be a daunting task to know which ones to use. Developers often gather in user groups to pass on tips for plugins that they know work well. However there are some general tips to help you choose the extras that you need to get the job done. We can pass on these tips in the form of questions you can ask yourself when browsing and choosing plugins:
Is the plug in the WordPress.org plugin directory? This is a reputable source, plugins here are openly licenced and available for peer review, rating etc. As you will see there is other information listed there that helps us make a decision about if to use it or not. Our advice, if the plugin is not listed here, you shoud probably avoid it and find an alternative.
Is it simple? The best plugins do one thing and they do it well. If the options for the plugin are too numerous or confusing try to see if you can acheive the same thing with simplier plugin.
How many people have downloaded the plugin? You can check this by looking at plugins' home page in the plugin directory at http://wordpress.org/plugins/
Is it up to date? WordPress core code gets updated quite regularly, the longer it has been since the plugins was updated, the less likely it is to work well. Check the
How is it rated? There is a rating
Is there an active support forum? Some plug in writers are great at supporting the users of their plugins. They fix any bugs, keep the code up to date and respond to questions about how to use it.
Is there more than one coder involved? Ideally you don't want your plugins to become outdated if one coder loses interest. Many great plugins have just one author, but it's safer if there is more than one.
Does it have many translations (localisations)? If a plugin has been translated to different languages you can be sure it's useful.
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