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This is a multipart question regarding bounties, votes, and something I don't quite understand. On one post I made, I was awarded a bounty (by Community), and had two upvotes on my answer.

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OP says I got there too late. Not sure what context he is referring to in that regard, but from what I understand, based on how Community bounties work, it means the OP was not the person who awarded the bounty, right? Anyway, the next day, I log in, and my reputation has gone down by two. So, if this answer was worth a(n) (anonymous?) bounty, then, why did it get downvoted? Clearly it was worth something or the bounty would not have been awarded. Why can we still downvote something that is clearly relevant to the context and worth something within the scope of the question?

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    Would you also abstain from receiving upvotes now your answer got a bounty? Remember that votes cast by members of the community how useful they think your answer is. They should judge content, not if it has votes / bounties/ acceptmarks.
    – rene
    May 4, 2018 at 13:14
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    Why should a bounty award preclude an answer from further downvotes? It's no different than being able to downvote an accepted answer. It having some other mark does not mean it's perfect or useful to everyone else.
    – animuson StaffMod
    May 4, 2018 at 13:15
  • If an answer is worth a bounty, it wouldn't be really downvote-worthy unless the OP decides that it's not what they're wanting. Downvotes should be reserved for something that people find not useful within the context of the situation.
    – cryophoenix
    May 4, 2018 at 13:17
  • Who knows? Votes are anon, so, unless the voter comes forward and comments, no one can say why you got a doenvote, all the usual reasons stand, the bounty makes no diffrence and why should it?. Why not comment the OP on that post?, something like "Hey, did you downvote? Could you please explain why, so I can improve my post?"
    – Mark Kirby
    May 4, 2018 at 13:18
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    But I don't find that answer useful ...
    – rene
    May 4, 2018 at 13:19
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    @MarkKirby ouch, those comments are often down vote magnets. I wouldn't do that.
    – rene
    May 4, 2018 at 13:20
  • @MarkKirby which is why I'm thinking the owner of the question should be the only one with authority to downvote a bounty-awarded or accepted answer. Not that they'd accept something they'd downvote. But because answers should be given within the scope of the problem at hand, I see no reason for people other than the OP to downvote something that someone found useful enough to award a bounty to. Furthermore, doesn't it just make that person who put their reputation into said bounty feel bad if that answer is then downvoted?
    – cryophoenix
    May 4, 2018 at 13:21
  • @rene Fair enough and a good warning for OP
    – Mark Kirby
    May 4, 2018 at 13:21
  • lmao this seems to be a downvote magnet itself. i should prob delete before i get myself downvoted to oblivion on the answer in question >.>
    – cryophoenix
    May 4, 2018 at 13:22
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    Answers are not just for the OP but for ANY readers and if those readers don't like your answer, they downvote. Just because one user likes it does not in anyway mean someone else will like it. If you are going to get so hung up on a singel downvote (-2 on a +120 question) you are going to have a bad time here, anyone can vote for any reason and unexplaind downvotes are just a byproduct of that.
    – Mark Kirby
    May 4, 2018 at 13:25
  • No, i'm not upset. I was just wondering about the idea of something that was very useful to SOMEONE being theoretically downvoted to oblivion.
    – cryophoenix
    May 4, 2018 at 13:27
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    "downvoted to oblivion" bit premuture, you still have a positive score, one person did not like it, be happy you got a bounty of 100, most answers never make anything like that.
    – Mark Kirby
    May 4, 2018 at 13:29
  • yeah i know, and i'm really excited. But I was thinking theoretically.
    – cryophoenix
    May 4, 2018 at 13:30

3 Answers 3

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Absolutely. The only reason an answer should be blocked from being voted in any direction is because it's been locked, an action which can only be performed by mods and which can be disputed on the site's meta. If bounties could stop a post from being downvoted then it would be extremely easy to rig the entire voting system through abusing bounties.

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    Ahhhh! Thank you! this was an explanation that i was looking for. as soon as it lets me accept this i will
    – cryophoenix
    May 4, 2018 at 13:23
  • as for the other part of the question, is "community" just an anonymous bounty placed by someone else other than OP?
    – cryophoenix
    May 4, 2018 at 13:25
  • @cryophoenix Ahh, no the bounty shouldn't be anonymous, there should be a paper trail for it (possibly only on the question, not the answer.) If the person who started the bounty doesn't award it before the time runs out, then the system automatically awards the bounty to the highest voted answer, and attributes that to the community user. Any time you see the community user, that's an automatic action from the Stack Exchange software.
    – curiousdannii
    May 4, 2018 at 13:26
  • But i wasn't the highest voted answer. Is this a bug in the system now?
    – cryophoenix
    May 4, 2018 at 13:27
  • @cryophoenix I'm not completely sure on how it works, but I think it excludes answers which were written before the bounty was offered. I'd assume yours was the highest voted answer written after then. And of course answers from whoever offered the bounty are excluded.
    – curiousdannii
    May 4, 2018 at 13:31
  • this makes more sense now. Thank you for your insight. I'd never been awarded a bounty before so....this is kinda new to me.
    – cryophoenix
    May 4, 2018 at 13:32
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    Congrats! 100 bonus rep is always nice!
    – curiousdannii
    May 4, 2018 at 13:32
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A manually-awarded bounty, like an answer acceptance, is the opinion of one person. A Community-awarded bounty isn't so much an opinion as a consequence of a couple people upvoting, which people do for all sorts of reasons. None of that should prevent the rest of the community (present and future) from voting in either direction.

An answer acceptance at least theoretically means the answer has been tested, and we don't even prevent downvotes for that. A bountied answer hasn't necessarily been validated in any way, and if it's wrong people need to be able to indicate that.

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This is a multipart question regarding bounties, votes, and something I don't quite understand. On one post I made, I was awarded a bounty (by Community), and had two upvotes on my answer.

The author issued a bounty on their own question and didn't award the bounty before the bounty expired. What did happen was that because you submitted your answer after the bounty was started, and your answer received 2 upvotes from the community, you were awarded half the bounty automatically. This is of course due to the way bounties work.

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 (or the full amount, if the answer is also accepted). If two or more eligible answers have the same score (their scores are tied), the oldest answer is chosen. If there's no answer meeting those criteria, no bounty is awarded to anyone.

What is a bounty? How can I start one?

OP says I got there too late. Not sure what context he is referring to in that regard

It is a reference to the fact, an answer which was submitted before your answer, actually solved their problem. This is evident based on the fact, their second question makes mention of the fact the code in the answer works. The author of the question didn't accept the answer. You are not required to accept an answer to your question. You are also not required to award a bounty, you can allow the community decide, which answer should receive it.

Clearly it was worth something or the bounty would not have been awarded.

It was only awarded because 2 users upvoted your answer.

Why can we still downvote something that is clearly relevant to the context and worth something within the scope of the question?

The question is not locked, so the question and any answers submitted to a non-protected question can be voted on.

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    Despite the fact you accepted an answer, I went ahead and submitted this answer, since you don't seem familiar with how bounties work. I figured somebody should explain what actually happened in the example situation.
    – Ramhound
    May 4, 2018 at 15:50
  • +1 for self-demonstration. On Meta, no less.
    – Nathan Tuggy
    May 6, 2018 at 6:26

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