Well… as a developer I’m heavily promoting the use the snapshot version of the binding, because I want to know if works and doesn’t contain any bugs. For new bindings there is no stable version so if a user wants to use something it’s a snapshot version. Just look at the list of new bindings in the last release. There were only snapshots versions of those new bindings. So in praktisch it’s not going to work to not use snapshot versions. Even for existing bindings there are issues. For example if a device manufacturer decided to update the firmware of a device resulting in a binding not working. If the developer fixes this quickly it will only be available in a snapshot version. So the users only option is to install the snapshot. And not to mention that small sentence added to that updated binding: to use this binding you need to upgrade to the snapshot version of openHAB… (Because some interfacing in openHAB changed and this updated binding depends on it).
So I can relate to the problem of finding the right version. Most of the time, especially for new bindings, the developer posts a link to the forum. Then people react, some things change and an updated version is created by he developer. Next the developer posts an update with a new/same link again. If this happens over a longer period these links become outdated. Or bindings get merged, new released come making even more links obsolete. Searching through all that information can be hard for new users I would guess.
There are ways to distribute a snapshot binding: Via the Eclipse Marketplace. I try to use the Eclipse Marketplace as much as possible to distribute snapshot versions. But I think I’m only one of the few who do this. It’s maybe not the most elegant interface. But at least it makes it easier for users. So developers can help here too.
However I think openHAB needs it’s own integrated distribution mechanism for snapshot/new bindings that makes it easier for both developers and users. I’ve been thinking about such a system, but have no clear solution yet. So we can all beter communicatie what the status of a binding is and were to find it and if it is going to work on the system one is currently running on.