One solution would be to ditch the email. Our new Global Notification System already covers the notification aspect and I don't really see the need for an email. Presumably someone who already uses the site enough to offer a bounty will also be visiting the Stack Exchange network often enough to not need the extra notification. (This assumes that at least one of the reasons for the email was to cover the case where the bounty-offerer does not return often enough to see the late Big Slidy Orange.)
A second solution takes a page from Facebook's playbook and allows users to configure which notifications they have emailed to them as a global setting. It could easily default to send the notification. This would provide a more general solution, require a fair amount of work, but be totally worthwhile.
Finally, if we must send this email (because it's in the email robot union contract or whatnot), let's divide the notification into two use cases:
The situation where a user has offered a bounty, gotten at least one answer (not their own), and has not awarded the bounty. That's more or less the use case the above email seems to assume.
The situation where a user hasn't gotten an answer at all and might benefit from Jeff's advice.
Here's the text I propose for the second case:
Bounty reminder
Your bounty on the question …
[Question title]
… ends in 48 hours.
As of this email, nobody has provided an additional answer. But don't despair! It could be that someone right now is working on a masterpiece to submit at the eleventh hour (give or take).
In the meantime, have you considered:
- Editing the question for readability and clarity?
- Adding more examples and data?
- Adding descriptions (and results, even if partial) of any additional research you undertook to get an answer to your question?
- Reducing its scope so that it is easier to answer?
- Retagging it to more appropriate tags that might get more (or different) eyeballs?
Remember, if someone does answer the question before the bounty expires, you'll still have at least 24 hours to award it. For more information, refer to the bounty faq.
Questions? Comments? Let us know on our feedback site. If you no longer want to receive mail from Meta Stack Overflow, unsubscribe from all Meta Stack Overflow emails with a single click.
Stack Exchange Inc. 55 Broadway, 26th Floor, NY NY 10006 <3
Note that the notification needs to be sent a little earlier in this case since it takes time for:
- The user to read the email.
- The user to act on changing the question.
- Other users to notice the question changes.
- Other users to write an answer.
There's no grace period in this case for these actions and since many people don't do Stack Exchange stuff over the weekend, they need a little more time.
(Not on-topic to this question, but maybe the bounty can be extended automatically in this case. That way this mostly bad-news email could have a silver-lining purpose.)
And since I'm feeling generous, here's a slightly less obnoxious version of the original email for your consideration:
Bounty reminder
Your bounty on the question …
[Question title]
… ends in 23 hours.
Please review the answers. If you feel one of them deserves you bounty, award it by clicking the bounty icon to the left of the answer. Otherwise, you might consider providing feedback in the form of comments or edits. If you don't award your bounty, the highest scored answer (with a minimum of 2 score) provided after your bounty started may be automatically awarded half the bounty amount.
For more information, refer to the bounty faq.
Questions? Comments? Let us know on our feedback site. If you no longer want to receive mail from Meta Stack Overflow, unsubscribe from all Meta Stack Overflow emails with a single click.
Stack Exchange Inc. 55 Broadway, 26th Floor, NY NY 10006 <3
