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The bounty I offered on this question is now in its grace period and the information box tells me:

you must award this bounty as soon as possible

But there are no answers - what do I do?

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2 Answers 2

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From How does the bounty system work?

If no answers meet these criteria, the bounty ends without it being awarded to any answer, and is not refunded to the bounty starter.

So, nothing for you to do.

Admittedly, not being able to award a bounty at all makes this a bad message - this can certainly be seen as a bug.

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  • 3
    That's fine - perhaps the wording should be conditional on whether the bounty can actually be awarded?
    – Widor
    Jun 28, 2012 at 11:59
  • 2
    @Widor - Either that or be changed to encompass both cases.
    – Oded
    Jun 28, 2012 at 12:00
  • Is there a reason why questions with no replies at all also result in a bounty forfeit? (I read the FAQ and I understand why it should be forfeited if there are answers and the bounty is not awarded). No big deal but it happened to me and I didn't understand what was up.
    – spring
    Jun 28, 2012 at 12:48
  • @skinnyTOD - To avoid people simply getting attention to a post (good or bad). The idea is that you are paying for a featured "slot" with some rep.
    – Oded
    Jun 28, 2012 at 13:00
  • Perhaps there's a case for two types of bounty - a 'promo' one and a 'prize' one. The promo one would simply be a fixed fee to make the question more visible - the promoter loses their 'fee' and no-one gets the bounty, whether there are good answers or none. The 'prize' one is variable and goes to the best answer as judged by the bounty-starter, but is refundable if you don't get an answer.
    – Widor
    Jun 28, 2012 at 13:13
  • @Oded: OK- thanks. I guess that makes sense. In my case, I just wanted help with my damned question and when I got no answers, forfeiting it just seemed to add insult to desperation... ;-)
    – spring
    Jun 28, 2012 at 13:32
  • Now that you're a dev you have the power to make what you suggest happen. :)
    – Shadow The Spring Wizard
    Jun 26, 2013 at 12:25
  • I get This question had a bounty worth +50 reputation from lostsock that ended 9 hours ago. You have 14 hours to award the bounty , but there's no answers, so maybe the last sentence shouldn't appear? meta.stackexchange.com/questions/233560/… since it's not possible to award a bounty since 0 answers
    – CRABOLO
    Sep 22, 2014 at 14:40
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On a side note: Answers that are posted during the grace period are still eligible for bounties, so the grace period still makes sense.

In any case, the wording

you must award this bounty as soon as possible

is misleading. There's nothing you must do. Even if there are two, twenty or two hundred answers, you don't have to do anything if none of the answers is good enough.

In my opinion,

If you're going to award the bounty, you must do so as soon as possible.

sounds better.

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