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For my question Kingston SSD toolbox doesn't see new SSD I posted a bounty which didn't garner any responses that were helpful. And the only answer had a score of 1, and that answer didn't solve my issue.

So after a while I decided to post a 2nd bounty. Again, I have not had any helpful answers, but that initial answer that garnered just the 1 up vote now has a vote count of 3 (and received the additional 2 votes after I had posted the 2nd bounty)

From the help center about bounties

If you do not award your bounty within 7 days (plus the grace period), the highest voted answer created after the bounty started with a minimum score of 2 will be awarded half the bounty amount. If two or more eligible answers have the same score (their scores are tied), the oldest answer is chosen. If there's no answer meeting those criteria, no bounty is awarded to anyone.

So I am confused if this original answer will be awarded my new bounty as the answer was created after the 1st bounty, but before the 2nd bounty. Personally I don't think it deserves my bounty, but I don't think that I will have any control over the result.

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  • You are correct. The existing answer will indeed be awarded the bounty unless another answer is submitted and you award it the bounty or it receives more votes then the existing answer.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 2:34
  • @Ramhound I have no problem awarding bounties, but this seems like a total waste - my bounty will have resulted in no payoff to me.
    – Peter M
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 2:37
  • I have often offered bounties that didn't result in an acceptable answer and even went without being awarded to anyone. Your reputation points cannot be be returned to you, the bounty might be able to be canceled if you asked a moderator, but that wouldn't result in a refund though.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 2:40
  • @Ramhound It's not the bounty that I have spent that is my concern, but the auto award to an answer that I have shown doesn't solve my problem.
    – Peter M
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 11:43
  • We can't do anything. Your concern is unfair to the person who went out of your way to attempt to answer your question. To be fair only the second answer is eligible though, if it recieves 2 votes, that is
    – Ramhound
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 17:19

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Your assessment is correct. Answers added before the current bounty started are not eligible for the automatic award of half the bounty's points. This one's rep, like that of the previous, will disappear into the aether unless you manually award it.

It's frustrating to spend a lot of rep and not get a useful answer. Nevertheless, the bounty system was never intended to let you buy an answer; bounties buy attention. It's been moderately successful in that regard: the very conservative view counter reports that your question has been read a few hundred times.

Your concern about an "unworthy" answer receiving an automatic bounty is understandable. If it makes you feel any better, when bounties are auto-awarded, the tooltip on the receiving answer's blue bounty box shows the awarder as Community, as opposed to the bounty starter.

Besides, there are three days left in the bounty period, and you never know - someone might be hard at work on an answer for you as we speak.

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  • I understand that I am buying advertising with my bounty, it's the auto-award that is frustrating me in this case. But from your 1st para I am still not clear if answer eligibility with respect to when a bounty is posted is recorded on a per question or per bounty basis. Can you clarify that?
    – Peter M
    Commented Aug 4, 2016 at 11:42
  • It's per-bounty, in my understanding. I clarified the answer.
    – Ben N
    Commented Aug 5, 2016 at 4:37

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