In reply to Steve Wilkinson.

100% agree with Steve - on both business and private WP installs, first thing I look at in a plugin is date of last update.

Obviously there are a very few where I don't, and just automat(t)ically install - akismet, jetpack, and my favourite SEO, gallery, and contact forms plugins.

But for anything else (including themes) I check the author's maintenance of them first. If it's a new function for a specific site (e.g. a membership or newsletter plugin as installed this month on a new site for a client) then anything not marked as working with current WP version is immediately ignored and only the most recently updated plugins considered for use.