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Bounties

Attract more attention to unanswered or important questions with a Bounty.

L
Written by Loren Alldrin
Updated over a week ago
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Tags | Engagement | Bounties |

Applies to: Enterprise

This documentation is for Stack Overflow Enterprise. Free, Basic, and Business users can access their documentation here. Find your plan.

Overview

The Stack Overflow for Teams Enterprise (SOE) Bounties feature allows you to attach a reputation point Bounty to a question to encourage other users to answer it. If you've asked a good question but are not receiving answers, you may need to sweeten the deal—and attract more interest—with a Bounty.

A Bounty can be anywhere from 50 to 500 reputation points, and you don't have to be the original asker of the question to place a Bounty on it. The person who offers the Bounty pays for it up-front with their own reputation points, and the Bounty is non-refundable.

A Bounty increases exposure

The Bountied question will appear with a special indicator in all question lists, and it will also be visible on the Bountied tab for seven days. Part of what you're "paying for" with a Bounty is exposure beyond what a normal question gets. Though a Bounty guarantees increased exposure, it doesn't guarantee a response. Remember that reputation points are not refundable if no answers are received as a result of the Bounty.

When and how to start a Bounty

You can start a Bounty on a question no earlier than two days after the question was asked. Click on Start a bounty at the bottom of an eligible question, then allocate anywhere between 50 and 500 reputation points (in 50-point increments). You'll then choose from a list of Bounty reasons to help other users understand why you may be dissatisfied with any current answers to the question. Finally, you can enter optional text that SOE will display with the Bounty reason.

Awarding Bounties

If you've placed a Bounty on a question, you have to wait at least one day to award that Bounty to an answer. The maximum Bounty period is seven days, after which there is a 24-hour grace period for you to manually award the Bounty. To award a Bounty, click the Bounty award icon next to the desired answer(s). You can't award a Bounty to your own answer.

If you do not award your Bounty within seven days (plus the grace period), SOE will automatically award the Bounty as follows:

  • If the Bounty was started by the questioner, and the questioner accepts an answer posted during the Bounty period, the full Bounty goes to that answer.

  • If the questioner didn't accept an answer during the Bounty period, the system awards half the Bounty to the highest-scored answer posted during the Bounty period (minimum score of 2).

    • If there are multiple answers and one answer has a higher score, that answer gets half the Bounty.

    • If two or more eligible answers have the same high score, the oldest answer gets half the Bounty.

  • If no answer has a score of 2 or higher, SOE awards no Bounty.

Bounty restrictions

  • Users may only have three active Bounties at any given time.

  • Questions may only have one active Bounty at any given time.

  • If you're offering a Bounty on a question that you've already posted an answer to, your minimum spend is 100 reputation (not 50). This helps avoid overly promotional Bounties.

  • If you offer multiple Bounties on the same question, the minimum spend doubles with each subsequent Bounty (50 reputation on the first Bounty, 100 reputation on the second, 200 on the third, etc.).

  • You may not cancel or alter a Bounty once you've started it.

NOTE: As a bonus to Bounty earners, any reputation earned from Bounties is exempt from the daily reputation cap.

If you need further support or have questions, contact your site administrator.

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