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I am aware of I just awarded myself a bounty so I'm not sure how this user has been awarding him-/her-self with bounties. It appears to have happened more than once.

Is this correct? I thought this isn't supposed to be allowed. Have I found a bug?

EDIT: I now see how it's happening. A second user is posting the bounties and awarding it to the user who initially asked the question. Still seems weird. Agreed?

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They haven't awarded themselves a bounty.

If you hover over the bounty indicator in the margin of the answer (it says something like +50), you'll see a tooltip that indicates who awarded the bounty:

This answer has been awarded bounty worth 50 reputation by Rizvan

In the case of this recent question, for instance, Tintin's answer was awarded a 50 point bounty by the user Rizvan. The revision history for the question itself indicates that Rizvan started a bounty on the question on March 19th, and the bounty ended 3 hours ago.

Same thing with this question; Rizvan set a bounty on the question and awarded it to Tintin.

Those are the only two bounties that Tintin has earned.

Perhaps the crucial element that you were missing in your understanding of the bounty system is that users can establish bounties on other people's questions?

In response to your edit: Why does that seem weird? There's not enough evidence here to establish a pattern of abuse. It's likely that Rizvan just does similar types of work as Tintin, and therefore has similar questions. If this happens again, then it might be time to do some closer investigation.

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  • Just seemed weird because the answers didn't seem all that substantial. And that they were awarded back to the original OP. Thanks for the descriptive answer.
    – TryTryAgain
    Mar 26, 2012 at 16:48
  • It does sound like a case that might be sock-puppeting, but it looks like it's not the case, as you've already... established.
    – rlb.usa
    Mar 26, 2012 at 20:29
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    @Steve I'm not sure if that was supposed to imply that you disagree with my reasoning (you disestablishmentarian, you!) or what. Yes, it's certainly possible that this could be sock-puppeting, but I stand by my original claim that 2 isolated incidents is not enough to make that kind of accusation against someone. If it were to happen again, then someone should probably investigate. If you disagree with me, flag one of the posts on SO for moderator attention; they have the tools to do better investigating.
    – Cody Gray - on strike
    Mar 26, 2012 at 23:01
  • Why does that seem weird? His concern is related to the subject of sock-puppeting, so it is a good concern for one to have. But as you pointed out, there's no need to be worried in this particular instance, as it wasn't the case. = )
    – rlb.usa
    Mar 26, 2012 at 23:10
  • @Steve: I'm the one that suggested it might be sock-puppeting. That theory or accusation didn't appear in the question. Sorry, I was trying to be helpful, but I still don't know what you're driving at.
    – Cody Gray - on strike
    Mar 26, 2012 at 23:12
  • @TheEstablishment I wasn't even aware of the term or action of sock-puppeting so that's good to know. I now also understand that in this case not enough reason is available for an accusation. And from your comments to Steve, above, I will simply flag for a moderator if anything seems more than suspicious in the future.
    – TryTryAgain
    Mar 27, 2012 at 21:00

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