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I asked this question on SO, put a 50 point bounty on it and awarded the bounty to a user's answer. The question was subsequently and unfairly migrated to DBA. Furthermore, the bounty was stripped from the user and I was not credited back the 50 points.. What happened to these points?

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I've deleted the stub of your question on Stack Overflow, after which the rep you offered for the bounty was returned (less the reputation gained from the up-votes that were on the question).

It's confusing only because the rep awarded for the bounty is attached to the answer (which is deleted immediately upon migration), while the reputation paid for offering the bounty is attached to the question (which normally isn't deleted until some time later).

None of this is all that "fair" of course - the guy who worked to provide the answer still loses out on the bounty. Good reason to migrate early or not at all.

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  • Well, thank you for the reimbursement!.. Perhaps the logic for handling bounties and migrations should be re-visited to provide fair and realistic handling of these situations?.. I will now wait 2 days, proceed to place the 50-point bounty on the question and rightfully award it to the user who invested time and energy to answer my question, albeit I still feel this question should've never been migrated to DBA. I only see 9 Informix-related questions there and most of them actually don't have anything related to DBA, rather Informix-specific SQL, etc.
    – Joe R.
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 4:35
  • EDIT: If the 50 rep cannot be credited to the user on SO, perhaps I should start a bounty on another SO question, hope the user answers and award him the 50, however this does not reflect the real reason and intent!
    – Joe R.
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 5:21
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    As with most things involving bounties, the rules are a balancing act between those that allow them to work, and those that prevent them from interfering too much with the normal operation of the site. I'm not particularly happy about this migration, but I do agree that the question itself is probably a better fit on DBAs; that said, the choice should really be yours - the next time you see a question of yours migrated and don't feel it should be, don't hesitate to flag for moderator attention and state that.
    – Shog9
    Commented Jul 20, 2012 at 18:33
  • I'll certainly flag for moderator attention, next time something like this happens. I'm surprised that no one has migrated my most recent SO[Informix] question to DBA, since it strictly has to do with the DB's server!.. However, the question only has Informix tag. Perhaps users who follow this tag (which has a more limited audience than MySQL, etc) want it to stay there?.. Again, thanks for your understanding and help related to the posting of my Informix question!
    – Joe R.
    Commented Jul 21, 2012 at 1:34
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Like all bounty points, they were dead to you from the moment you placed the bounty. They're never automatically restored under any circumstances (although perhaps mods or developers have the ability to do it manually.)

It's a shame that the answerer lost the points, but again, points don't transfer when questions are moved, that's just the way it works.

Now, for what it's worth, I agree with the move; that's absolutely a question about database administration, and not a question about programming.

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  • It is unethical since the user invested substantial time to provide the correct answer!.. This question should've never been migrated to DBA, it's specific to Informix 11.70.
    – Joe R.
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 0:52
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    I do think it's a shame the user lost the points. But how does being specific to a given database version make it inappropriate for DBA? That seems like it would make the question more appropriate for the specialized site.
    – Ernest Friedman-Hill
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 0:56
  • Users who follow Informix have always done so in SO, DBA has no visibity as far as Informix Q&A's are concerned!.. It's irritating to have to go to yet, another Forum for Informix related topics. It reflect an agenda of promoting yet, another forum which will struggle to gain acceptance. Keep Informix-related stuff together in one place!
    – Joe R.
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 1:02
  • How come this user got his 50 points back in a similar situation? "I agree. This happened to me before and I ended up getting them refunded a few days later I assume some script must run periodically. So maybe find another of Jonathan's answers to reward if and when that happens? – Martin Smith 9 hours ago"
    – Joe R.
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 1:27
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    Moderators have the ability to refund a bounty, as long as it is still in play (hasn't already been awarded to someone). We only do it under exceptional circumstances, though.
    – user102937
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 1:34
  • Well, if you analyze the circumstances with the question I placed a bounty on and awarded, you'll realize that it was unfair for both of us, especially the user who provided me the desired answer!.. Think about it, fair is fair!
    – Joe R.
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 1:45

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