I have a question with 10 views, and I would really like it not to get lost in time and space. I started a bounty, expecting the question to pop up to the top of some list somewhere on SO, but that didn't seem to happen. It still only has 10 views. If people don't even see that it has a bounty, how could the bounty possibly be motivating anyone to answer?
It seems to me that starting a bounty should cause the question to show up in the Active list or something similar.
The featured tab is available on the homepage and questions page. It lists all questions with an unawarded bounty, ordered by least remaining time before the bounty is automatically awarded.
By adding a question it shows up in the list of 'Featured' questions which I believe is sorted by the date the bounty will expire by default. When your question gets close to the end of its bounty time, then you will be the number 1 question on the featured list.
I am not sure about other people, but I regularly check Featured questions on SF to see if there is anything there I can answer.
Yes it can! It's not a guarantee that it will be answered to your satisfaction - if it's tumbleweed right now, it could be that there really is nobody able to answer it. But if it's an important question to you, it's definitely worth the try.
Putting a bounty on a question is always also a symbolic gesture that it's important to you, you're willing to give something up for an answer. As such, it may cue people to do some research of their own.
Don't be pissed off if it doesn't yield any results, though. When you start a bounty, the reputation is irrevocably gone, and a successful outcome is completely optional.
