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I placed a +50 bounty on the wrong question:

Why can't I change Normal Style's 'Style type'?.

When I realised I raised a flag requesting the bounty be stopped (and the reputation refunded):

Rejected flag

But why was my flag rejected?

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    This is already answered here: Why bounty is called "not refundable under any circumstances"? - Meta Stack Exchange
    – DavidPostill Mod
    Commented Jul 27, 2019 at 21:21
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    Mokubai already answered the question. Let me just make an observation. You've burned through a ton of rep offering bounties on your questions (maybe 10 bounties just since about Dec). Bounties should be exceptions, needed only rarely. If you need that many bounties, it's worth examining why. You received good answers, which suggests the questions were capable of attracting them. I won one myself that wasn't needed. You had an old question that you edited and almost immediately offered a bounty on. I saw the edit and was already preparing the answer. (cont'd)
    – fixer1234
    Commented Jul 28, 2019 at 1:23
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    When I submitted it, the screen refreshed and showed the bounty. So some may be a case of just not giving the question or edit enough time. A lot of your questions contain a very sparse description that requires the reader to invest some brain power to scope out. Some are just a sentence or two plus an animated GIF (I enjoy watching those with popcorn). A more explicit explanation might attract answers without a bounty. But if such a high percentage of your questions need a bounty, there's probably something about the questions that can be improved to attract answers without a bounty.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Jul 28, 2019 at 1:23
  • When I realised I raised a flag... Do you mean to say "When I realised I made a mistake I raised a flag"? If so, please edit your post to clarify.
    – I say Reinstate Monica
    Commented Aug 1, 2019 at 9:56

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Bounties are only revoked in exceptional circumstances. As mentioned by the MSE answer linked by David "I made a mistake" is a problem but by no means exceptional.

We also cannot prove one way or another that you did actually make a mistake and posted a bounty on the wrong question. It is up to you to be sure you are in the right place before making the multiple clicks necessary to post a bounty.

I'm not saying that this is the case for you or your bounty but allowing people to casually refund when they "make mistakes" opens the system to potential abuse.

People could post a bounty, wait for a couple of good answers to roll in, and then "oops, I made a mistake" and get the bounty refunded. It is not fair to the users who spent extra time on a bounty that they would have spent elsewhere, and it is not up to moderators to spend time trying to establish whether or not it could indeed have been a mistake or if it was just an attention grab. It would end up being down to the judgement of the moderator at hand to make a call as to whether to trust the person asking for their bounty to be refunded. At best it is ripe for mistakes and poor calls to be made, at worst it is based on opinion rather than solid fact.

A moderator shouldn't make that call. Hence such requests should (and will) be rejected.

The solid fact is that there are 3 clicks of "next" along with a drop-down to choose an amount and some time typing a reason for your bounty, there is ample time to notice that you are posting a bounty on the wrong question.

As a result the situations where bounties are refunded are the exception, not the norm.

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