# Why I don't like to use some 3rd party plugins **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [July 13, 2006, 10:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-i-dont-like-to-use-some-3rd-party-plugins/98233 "2006-07-13T10:29:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/orotone)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 10:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-i-dont-like-to-use-some-3rd-party-plugins/98233/1 "2006-07-13T10:29:57Z")
I’m not a professional developer in the sense that I’ve had any formal training or experience. I taught myself programming two years ago and have since moved to ruby and shortly after to rails - even now, i only develop as a hobby. This means that a lot of developer best practises are foreign or unknown to me, that’s why I love rails so much. You learn so much just by using it. The reason I don’t like using 3rd party plugins is I have no idea how well written they are. When the plugin comes from a well known ruby or rails developer, I’m quite happy to use it under the assumption that the author knows what they are doing. When I have no idea about the author’s credentials however, I tend to shy away. I can inspect the source code all day but I’m still not comfortable enough with my own skills and experience to evaluate it properly - I don’t know how well written the plugin is, how stable it is or how secure it is. I understand that the core team wants to keep rails very focused, and plugins are a great solution for extending the functionality, but I think there needs to be some “official” repository of plugins. This would host only the plugins that have been extensively documented and tested by the rails community (not necassarily by the core team who are busy with other things) and shown to be good enough for production use. a kind of “rails compatible” scheme. I’d love to hear what others think. alan ---
**Author:** ![orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/orotone)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 11:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-i-dont-like-to-use-some-3rd-party-plugins/98233/2 "2006-07-13T11:48:49Z")
What I like about the RoR community is that people are willing to share their code. Plugins make sharing solutions, or progamming aids easy. Plugins make my work easier, as well. I’m willing to take the risk. If a plugin doesn’t work to my satisfaction, I can fix it myself, ask the developer to fix it, or uninstall it. The accepted review/certification procedure is to [ANN] the release of the plugin on this list. Interested readers then check it out and offer feedback. This friendly, supportive atmosphere provides the community with working solutions to common problems much faster than a rigid ‘certification’ program would. - Larry ---
**Author:** ![orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/orotone)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-i-dont-like-to-use-some-3rd-party-plugins/98233/3 "2006-07-13T13:01:35Z")
I agree. The added advantage we have as well is of course that they are written in Ruby, which makes it relatively easy to understand how the plugins work, and how to modify them if we want or need to. One of the reasons I like the acts\_as\_authenticated plugin, for example, is that it’s very easy to adapt to your own requirements. ---
**Author:** ![orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/orotone)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 6:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-i-dont-like-to-use-some-3rd-party-plugins/98233/4 "2006-07-13T18:43:44Z")
I host a directory for plugins at [http://www.agilewebdevelopment.com/](http://www.agilewebdevelopment.com/) plugins that allows people to rank them (1-5 stars). By seeing the rankings of and number of votes for the plugins listed in the directory, you can get an idea of what others have thought of their usefulness/quality. I don’t believe anyone should be a gatekeeper that plugin authors have to satisfy to get their plugins out there, but I do believe the ranking system helps answer your request to know something about the quality of a plugin before trying it out yourself. – Benjamin C. [http://www.bencurtis.com/](http://www.bencurtis.com/) [http://www.tesly.com/](http://www.tesly.com/) – Collaborative test case management [http://www.agilewebdevelopment.com/](http://www.agilewebdevelopment.com/) – Resources for the Rails community ---
**Author:** ![orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/o/90db22/32.png) [@orotone](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/orotone)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2006, 10:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/why-i-dont-like-to-use-some-3rd-party-plugins/98233/5 "2006-07-13T22:18:02Z")
Your assumption is that if it’s not from a known source, it’s an unknown. But that’s only because you don’t yet have the experience to judge the quality of the code for yourself. But even that aside, a lot of very good programmers can’t even agree between themselves half the time on the best way to do things. I’d rather not see access to plugins limited by either of these scenarios. Let me decide what’s good for me, and if someone else needs assistance in making that decision, well that’s what lists like this are for. If you have a question about a plugin that’s actually being used, you will probably get good advice from this list or others like it.