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I asked a question and added a 50 point bounty (my first bounty question) but none of the answers actually provided anything solid and only tried to point me in the right direction with links I had already found myself.

I ended up solving the problem on my own and posted my code as an answer and accepted it.

I don't feel like either of the other answers showed significant knowledge or research and doubt they would be helpful for anyone in the future.

Since I can't award myself the points should I pick one of the other answers or just let them go into the void?

The question: Use excel spreadsheet as data source for report viewer c#

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  • Note that by accepting an answer during the bounty you cause it would be awarded the full bounty, unless you unaccept it before the bounty ends.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Feb 11, 2014 at 14:40

2 Answers 2

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Should I pick one of the other answers or just let them go into the void?

That's totally up to you. If you don't award the bounty manually, the bounty will be automatically awarded (but then for 25 points and not 50 because it was auto-awarded).

If you do not award your bounty within 7 days (plus the grace period), the highest voted answer created after the bounty started with a minimum score of 2 will be awarded half the bounty amount. If there's no answer meeting those criteria, the bounty is not awarded to anyone.

If you want to award the bounty manually to one of the answers, then choose the answer that was the most helpful to you. Did one of the answers give you an important tip to come to the final answer? Then give the bounty to that answer. If both answers were very helpful to you, then it's you who decides to whom you give the bounty.

If none of the answers were helpful to you, then just wait for the auto-award.

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A bounty is not a guarantee that you'll receive a definitive answer to your question. Bounties exist to help you increase the attention to your question (sort of like advertisements). In this case, your question has two answers - both of them seem fine to me. However, as ProgramFOX said, it's upto you to decide whether to award the bounty or not.

You have two options:

  • Award the bounty to the answer that helped you the most. Note that a perfect answer isn't almost always possible - if one of the answers point you in the right direction or helped you reach your answer, award the bounty to the answer
  • Wait for the bounty to expire - half the bounty amount (that is, 25 reputation points) will be awarded to the answer with the highest score. In this case, both answers have the same number of votes, so the bounty will be awarded to the oldest answer.

Note: The bounty FAQ has more details about the criteria used for awarding bounties.

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