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I recently had a bounty on a question which received a satisfactory answer worthy of the full bounty, but I was unable to grant the bounty due to a lack of internet service for an extended period of time. Since their answer received the most votes, they were awarded half the amount of the bounty.

I would like to award the full bounty to the user who posted the solution, but I am not sure how to proceed. Can I reopen the bounty and then award it to the user, or is there another way to award the bounty?

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    $\begingroup$ Assuming that awarding a double bounty would be excessive, I gladly volunteer to post a bounty for the Question to make up the difference if you can confirm that's the right one. $\endgroup$
    – hardmath
    Jul 16, 2018 at 16:38
  • $\begingroup$ That is the correct question, and I appreciate your generosity. However, I feel that I should pay the bounty so that the user understands that I have deemed the answer worthy by my own standards (and not the automated standards of getting the most votes) and appreciate their time. Seeing that you have already added a bounty to the question, I now feel that adding another bounty would be over-rewarding the answer, which has put me in a pickle. $\endgroup$
    – user122916
    Jul 16, 2018 at 23:18
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    $\begingroup$ I'm sure that a Comment with a link to this Meta Math.SE Question will show them your appreciation. $\endgroup$
    – hardmath
    Jul 16, 2018 at 23:20

2 Answers 2

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Unfortunately, there isn't currently a way to 'restore' the bounty and award it to the user. However, you can place another bounty on your question with the description 'One of the answers is exemplary and is worthy of an additional bounty.' But note that this time, the value of the bounty is doubled.

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  • $\begingroup$ As a "bystander" I was able to post a bounty at the original 50pt. minimum. $\endgroup$
    – hardmath
    Jul 16, 2018 at 17:02
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Practically speaking, you can post another bounty specifically for the purpose of rewarding your question-answerer.

Theoretically-speaking, it would be worth considering several changes to the bounty system (why have them expire at all? Why not allow a standing reward for answering an “open question”? Why the moratorium on adding bounties to new questions?) but my understanding is that the bounty parameters are decreed by the Stack Overflow folks and we have no say here at Math.SE.

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    $\begingroup$ Bounty is like a placing an ad. Questions with non-expired bounties are featured questions. If bounty would not expire I think it losses its purpose. $\endgroup$
    – user99914
    Jul 16, 2018 at 16:16
  • $\begingroup$ A "standing reward" would invite the prospect of a bounty never being awarded. $\endgroup$
    – hardmath
    Jul 17, 2018 at 3:24

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