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Typically when I want to bring attention to an older bug or feature request, I place a bounty on it (example 1, example 2).

But since the development team is probably the only ones who can provide an answer, I'm not sure if that's a very effective method.

Does the SE dev team watch the bounty board on a weekly basis to see what feature-requests or bugs get bountied? Or do we simply have to rely on the post getting enough attention that someone brings the topic to the dev team's attention?

Edit in response to Closed-As-Duplicate message

Thank you PM 77-1 for pointing out this question, which asked the same thing about 3 years ago when the Bounty system was first created, however I am looking for a more current answer than that post.

The accepted answer there was posted by Jeff himself, and he said

I'll try to make sure I at least answer the featured questions on meta.

This may have been possible in the early days of MSO and the bounty system, however this does not appear to be the case today, as I have placed and seen a lot of bounties on bugs and feature-requests that have not been answered.

I am looking for a more up-to-date answer by an authoritative source, and think that the substantial changes in Stack Exchange and MSO over the past three years should qualify for this question to be a different one from the linked question.

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  • 2
    Someone from the dev team will have to answer this, of course. But if it's like any other software shop that I've worked in, they've already got a list of priorities that's too long to ever finish, and some feature requests are so far down the list that they'll never get done. A bounty is sort of like "Oh, yeah. That old thing."
    – user102937
    May 13, 2013 at 15:17
  • 2
    Also see meta.stackexchange.com/questions/56010/…
    – PM 77-1
    May 13, 2013 at 15:23
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    I see the function of bounties as bringing the feature request to the attention of the community, not the devs. If the community rallies behind it, that carries more weight than some random person simply spending some of their hard-earned unicorn dollars on it.
    – user102937
    May 13, 2013 at 15:24
  • @Rob Yeah I wasn't sure if I should tag it with [bug] for [feature-request] to get their attention, but ultimately decided against it since it isn't really one of those. I understand the never-ending task list of a project this size, however I wasn't sure if items on that list got re-evaluated based on community attention given to individual problems or not. I would like to think that they do, as the community is probably more attentive of issues as they become more or less of a problem. I guess a summary of my question would be: is a bounty on a feature request or a bug a waste of rep?
    – Rachel
    May 13, 2013 at 15:25
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    @Rachel If it's developer attention you want, I'd hazard a guess and say it's a waste.
    – Bart
    May 13, 2013 at 15:27
  • PM's linked question echoes what I've observed, that occasionally a bounty will put a bug in the ear of someone at corporate, and conditions have changed in some way that makes it possible to get the feature request completed. But that doesn't happen very often.
    – user102937
    May 13, 2013 at 15:28
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    I disagree that this is a duplicate question because the linked post was asked 3 years ago when meta was much smaller and the bounty system new, and the answers posted there do not apply to now (For example, the accepted answer was from Jeff and he says "I'll try to make sure I at least answer the featured questions on meta", which is definitely not the case now).
    – Rachel
    May 13, 2013 at 18:07
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    @Rachel Might I suggest you bounty the dupe? ;)
    – Bart
    May 13, 2013 at 18:25
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    @Bart Haha I considered it, but honestly how seriously do people take bounties on 3 year old questions about how SE worked way back when... I would much rather edit my post to try and clarify why it is not a duplicate, and receive an up-to-date answer by someone from SE. And if they don't check the bounty board once a week or so, perhaps it's time to suggest that they start doing that, just like Jeff was doing 3 years ago. :)
    – Rachel
    May 13, 2013 at 18:32
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    @Rachel I'll provide a new answer on the dupe; just gotta wrap up a few other things first.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    May 13, 2013 at 18:50
  • @AnnaLear Thank you (Also, you and the rest of the Community Manager team do an awesome job!) :)
    – Rachel
    May 13, 2013 at 18:51
  • @AnnaLear given that this question is reopened, does it make more sense to provide a "modern" take on it here, in a newer question? (and then, maybe close older question as a dupe of this one)
    – gnat
    May 13, 2013 at 21:48
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    I check it every week or so and will mention posts in our chat that look promising. I confess I'm not as religious about it as I should be, though. I'll try to do better!
    – Jarrod Dixon
    May 13, 2013 at 22:11
  • You don't have enough unicorn dollars to bounty the original question, I guess?
    – user102937
    May 13, 2013 at 22:58

1 Answer 1

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We try, but we could certainly do better.

I believe most of us are more or less in the same boat as Jarrod:

I check it every week or so and will mention posts in our chat that look promising. I confess I'm not as religious about it as I should be, though. I'll try to do better!

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  • Thanks Anna, it would be nice if the dev team could check out bountied feature-requests and bugs once a week, then we could ensure our bounties at least bump a request to the dev's team attention, even if nothing can or will get done about it at the time :)
    – Rachel
    May 18, 2013 at 21:16
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    @Rachel In most cases, pinging one of us in the Tavern is probably a bit more productive than spending rep that's probably going to go nowhere. :) But we'll try. It's an imperfect system either way.
    – Adam Lear StaffMod
    May 19, 2013 at 2:20

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