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For the first time I answered a question with an open bounty.

In the "normal" question the OP ask how a certain thing can be done (call a python function with PyClicps) and provides his code that he can't get to work and ask what is he doing wrong.

The OP also opend a bounty, and in the message says that he want the answer to also provide some other things (that apparently he's not able to do) and that in my opinion are not related to the code by him provided in the "normal" question.

With "not related" I mean that without the bounty message, nobody could even guess that additional requests.

  • I answerd to the question, explaining what he was doing wrong.
  • With a comment he told me to answer to those additional requests.
  • I responded that it might be off-topic, but he was welcome to open a new question for them.
  • He replied telling that I didn't understood the question and repeted once again those additional requests.

I don't know what to tell him, because I'm not sure if he is in the wrong and in case how to explain that to him.

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7

The extra text that shown in the banner text has only the purpose of explaining why the bounty is being offered, and it doesn't replace the question edit.

screenshot

If the OP is asking an additional question in that text, just ignore it. Even supposing that the additional question serves to make clear what is asking in the question for which the bounty is offered, when the bounty is over that text is not visible anymore; who read your answer would not understand why you added an answer for something the OP didn't ask.

The OP has just two options:

  • Edit the question to make clear what it was asked.
  • Ask a new question.

By editing the question, I mean editing the text to remove unnecessary phrases, correct spelling, or something similar; it doesn't mean to alter the content of the question to make the answers already given invalid. If, for example, I ask "What time is it at New York when it is May 2, 4 a.m. on London, UK?" I cannot change the question to What time is it at Athene when it is September 4, 6 a.m. on London, UK?" because the question already given was not anymore valid.

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  • I agree. But then you won't get the bounty. Should there be a way for mods to cancel bounty offers (for cases like this) before they're awarded? (With the offerer getting his points back? Without?) – msh210 Jan 29 '12 at 20:38
  • I know that in some very rare cases moderators can return the bounty to the user who offered it, but it is not something that is done so easily (e.g. because the user changed idea about offering a bounty). I guess that it should be pointed out to the user that using the bounties in that way is not correct; after all, the bounties are used to get more attention to a question, not to change the question being asked. – kiamlaluno Jan 29 '12 at 20:49
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If the additional requests are "accessory" as in correlated to the main question, then answer them.

If, as you say in your question, they ask for something so different that could easily appear on another question, then you're right not to add them and the OP should post a separate question.

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