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My bounty expired because I didn’t log in for a few days, but someone answered during the eligible period and I wish to award them the bounty.

I noticed this just now — 5 hours too late.

If you look at this Q & A, it's pretty obvious what happened. Can a mod please award this answer the bounty? https://superuser.com/a/1248123/60337

(And in the future… consider changing this policy so those providing answers to bounties aren't punished due to someone being asleep at the wheel, as I was?)

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    Unfortunately, the only way this could happen is if a Stack Exchange developer manually edited the database to achieve the result you intend. I don't think they would do this, sadly.
    – bwDraco
    Commented Sep 14, 2017 at 4:35

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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There's literally nothing we can do.

There's even a grace period after the one week/168 hours, but no way to undo a 'lost' bounty or to do anything once the bounty period is over.

meta.se's got an in depth answer that has basically everything anyone needs to know on bounties

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  • Hmm, how's the grace period work? I got the 'bounty expired' message mere hours ago
    – Alan H.
    Commented Sep 14, 2017 at 5:45
  • if I recall correctly, its 24 hours after the bounty period?
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented Sep 14, 2017 at 5:47
  • Well, there might be nothing you can do to fix this situation now. But (1) Stack Exchange could consider lengthening the grace period. Would having a 48 hour grace period hurt? (2) The question's timeline says that the bounty started Sep 5, between 2100 and 2200, and ended Sep 13, between 2200 and 2300. That's eight days + one hour, and meshes with Alan's report that he got the 'bounty expired' message mere hours before Sep 14 0500. If the system isn't alerting the OP when the bounty actually ends, and only when the grace period has expired, that's a problem.
    – Scott - Слава Україні
    Commented Sep 19, 2017 at 1:28
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You can reward the answer with a another bounty

You do have the option to offer another bounty on the question, then manually award it to the answer you feel deserved the reward. There's even a bounty reason for this purpose:

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If you decide to go this route, be aware that each subsequent bounty offered on a question must be double your last bounty offer.

Depending on how valuable the answer was to you, this may be a fitting way to thank the poster for their effort. Remember, your cost is only some free Internet points!

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