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I don't have data to back it up but I feel advanced user have less chances to getting the answer right away. The reason being they need people with more knowledge and experience to solve a problem.

Now the motivational system on SO for someone to answer a question is points. Therefore an advanced user is more likely to get an answer if the question has a bounty attached to it.

The point I am trying to make is that there should be a way to calculate, based on previous user data, how long he has to wait before he can start a bounty? The present system of evenly waiting for two days for everyone needs an overhaul?

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  • 3
    Is waiting for two days really that much of a problem?
    – Bart
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 10:38
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    Why not give an option to spend his hard earned reputation if he feels that is the right course of action? Moreover if he spend it unwisely he will be have no more reputation to spend.
    – Gaurav Agarwal
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 10:42
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    If someone is that desperate for a solution I don't think SO is the right place to push that urgency.
    – Flexo - Save the data dump
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 11:01
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    @Flexo How are you trying to relate "push" and "urgency" with opening a bounty in one day instead of two?
    – Gaurav Agarwal
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 11:06

2 Answers 2

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I think reducing the time to 1 day makes sense.

  • Let's be honest. After an hour a typical question doesn't get that much attention anymore. Why wait 2 days for a boost on that?
  • I don't know how other people handle this, but if I have a difficult task at work where I am stuck I often can't wait 2 hole days for an answer. 1 max.

But I don't think this should be in any relationship to the user's reputation. Reduce the bounty delay to 1 day for everyone please.

BTW I couldn't find any good reason why 2 days is exactly the perfect time delay and why it should be kept.

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The bounty is primarily so it gets attention. All the various bounty reasons basically amount to "the answers are incomplete/nonexistant, I want someone to give a better answer". (Except for the "reward existing answer" one)

For that to apply, one should give the question some time to get an answer first. And why shouldn't the user wait? SO is about getting great, useful, answers, not getting answers quickly (though we manage that as well many times).

Basically, the "waiting two days" isn't something that's kept for newbies--it's kept intentionally for all users for the reasons given above. So, reducing it for high-reps will go against that, IMO.

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    What about the cases where a question has been upvoted without even a single comment or answer for a day? Does not that question need more attention and reward (in terms of point) to answer and that system is bounty. A believe a very nice algorithm(given the amount of data available for a particular user) can be written to ascertain when a user is allowed to open a bounty for a particular question instead of you can open bounty in two days.
    – Gaurav Agarwal
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 11:19
  • What about that particular case makes it limited to higher-rep users? Why should they be the only ones to benefit? If a new user with enough rep to place a bounty is in a similar situation, why should he wait longer than someone with more rep?
    – Bart
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 12:10
  • I think a question from a high rep user gets a lot of attention already. It is usually an interesting question.
    – Bo Persson
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 12:10
  • @darkcrow: Wait another day. What's the hurry? A post that's not answered/viewed in a day is hardly neglected. Remember, I'm not just talking about SO--I'm talking about the bounty system on all sites.
    – Manishearth
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 12:42
  • @Bart: Exactly, the privilege isn't a "dangerous"(putting it strongly) one that should be given to people with high rep. It's fine when you give "dangerous" privs to high rep users. It's discrimination if you give something like this to high reps.
    – Manishearth
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 12:43
  • @BoPersson: Hmm, yes. On all sites but SO, though. On SO I find that rep has no corellation with your ability to write good posts. I see high(>20k,>50k,>100k, even a former mod) reps posting VLQ answers :\
    – Manishearth
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 12:44
  • @Bart Your point makes sense now. Let's device more meaningful method/algo which can be used to open bounty on questions instead of just waiting fro two days to open a bounty.
    – Gaurav Agarwal
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 12:47
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    I really don't see the need for that though. 2 days is not that long and seems to work just fine. But hey, that's just my opinion.
    – Bart
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 12:48
  • @dark hmm, we're basically saying that 2 days is good for every question. Period. Nothing to do with high reps, that was a side discussion.
    – Manishearth
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 12:49
  • @ManishEarthwantsmorewaffles All I am saying is the present method is "Ok" and serves well but we can have "wow".
    – Gaurav Agarwal
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 12:56
  • @darkcrow: And I'm saying that the "wow" doesn't exist. There's a reason for having a two day delay, your proposal goes against it. Otherwise, why would they go through the trouble of adding a delay to the system in the first place?
    – Manishearth
    Commented Jul 18, 2012 at 14:12

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