I REALLY can´t understand bounties, and this got me thinking

Question

I am sort of getting a brain infinite loop problem. Here is the situation, I posted this question yesterday:

The Badges icon should be linked (to badges)

And it has actually had a very good response 20 votes up in just one day (this is not to brag but to make a point). The question provides a quite simple feature-request that would be easy to implement and seems to make a lot of sense, no only to me but to quite a few others.

This got me thinking, hey! this is a good idea, so lets wait 48 hours and start a bounty. And now the problems.

What would this bounty actually be for?

Is it a price I have to pay to -> have the possibility to -> maybe -> "make stackexchange better". Dont get me wrong I "believe" in this feature request and REALLY dont mind losing the rep points, the question then is understanding WHY should I set a bounty.

Now say that I really want this feature. Good, so I set a bounty, who should I assign it to? Should I give it to the most voted answer that might be: "Yep, I´d like this feature too :)". The only real answer I could get is from a site moderator with a lot of real knowledge about the inside of stackexchange that tell me either:

We love that feature will be adding it soon! Thanks

OR

No, fat bastard, we hate your feature, it is stupid, so take you bounty and SIUY

So the real question is whether starting a bounty is a way to give your self the possibility of making a request very popular and eventually a reality and so enhance your ego a little bit. Or is a way to to make buzz over your feature request and to give your self the possibility of making a request very popular and eventually a reality and so enhance your ego a little bit.

BTW I´m just joking, don´t want to attack anyones ego enhancing techniques and know that the actual answer might be that it is a way of giving back to the community.

So the real problem might be this:

Although the stack exchange is a Q & A site (which for me was love at first sight), the question and answer system might not be the best for a feature-request.

The best way might be a sort of SOCIAL ticket system with voting, but one should en up knowing in the end in which of this 3 scenarios does your question fall in:

1. This feature sucks, we can´t/won´t add it, not now, not ever.
2. This might be a good idea but we cant guarantee will have the time resources or will to make it happen
3. OMG you are a f* genius and will devote the whole resources of the site to implementing this feature.

To end:

Despite "all the effort" behind this question ;)

I realize that the Moderators will have to close it if there isn´t a real question behind all this mindless babble, so, here it comes:

Should I start a bounty, on the question mention and the beginning of this question? and if so, what is the real reason behind it? WHY should I and while you are at it you might also give me your opinion on whether you agree that this modality might no be the greatest af all for a feature-request and that because of it a lot really good ideas might be lost on the way.

NOTES:

I realize this might be the longest question ever to be written in this site and that might just make it also the most boring one, but if you are still reading you are probably slightly interested in what I have to say so I apologize for not being able to express my ideas in a more concise and clear way.

I also realize that the site moderators and administrators are really few compared to the amount of question and people in this site, ergo, they wont be able to attend everyone´s need even if they wanted to. I also realize that you really CAN´T accept every feature that is requested because this would turn the site un-usable. I DO realize that this is the kind of site that cares about it´s users, that is why I am posting this (never ending) question.

Answer 1

Should I start a bounty, on the question mention and the beginning of this question? and if so, what is the real reason behind it?

I really don't understand this question, so let me answer a few that I kind of get from your question

What is the point of bounties on meta?

Bounties on meta are odd beasts, they give your question a bit more visibility. When you give the bounty away it will give that person a warm fuzzy feeling.

Jeff has said in the past that he tries to respond to all questions on meta that have a bounty (or at least look at it)

Is the Q&A system ideal as a replacement for a bug tracker?

No, its not ideal. However I think it works alright in this context. I prefer it when users have a limited pool of wishes and are forced to choose what they deem most important. (like uservoice or my community tracker does). That said, I do not feel much is falling through the cracks, and I feel we are working through the majority of issues / feature requests.

Should I be allowed to start a bounty from get-go on meta?

Maybe, I don't have a strong opinion for or against

How do I know somebody is looking at my stuff?

Sometimes we will tag stuff "status-planned" often I will favorite stuff I know I need to look at. Both Jeff and I have seen the request to hyperlink badges and its being considered.