481 votes
Bounty system for unanswered questions
Users could pledge reputation points for popular questions they'd like to see answered. The accepted answerer would get all the reputation points.
I don't know if this could cause gaming problems, but it'd be nice to encourage someone to do the research answer tough questions.
Status:
completed
AnonJr
While I see the benefit from this for certain questions, you might want to tweak it to keep bouties from being added to subjective questions or questions where there is no real "right" answer. Probably ought to look at possibly not allowing it for CW posts too, but I could go either way on that one.
rwmnau
Nobody has suggested this model - why can't the rep bonus from being chosen as the correct answer to a question just go up after time, on some kind of LOG scale? For example, an accepted answer is worth 10 points the first day, then a point a day for the next 10 days, and then a point a week for the next 10 weeks, or something like that? That way, older questions are worth greater amounts.
drfloyd5
Jeff and Joel just criticized other QA sites for attempting to pay people $$$ for answers. Joel asserted that Google Answers FAILED because of it.
StackOverflow, reputation (like money) is just a proxy for value. Every argument for why $$$ failed is an argument for why reputation bounty will fail.
To test your argument, think back over this "feature" and replace the word "rep" with "cash".
Dan R.
To add to my last comment...
It would be like the adage 'The rich get richer' but here it would be 'The smart get smarter'.
Dan R.
My concern is that if reputation is used, users who need the most help (beginner programmers) probably won't have that much reputation points to offer as a bounty.
endangeredmassa
What should happen if you offer up 1000 rep points to whomever can answer a question, then by paying that person you fall below a rep limit for a certain permission on the site? I think that there should be a "total rep score" and a "current rep score", where your total tracks all points ever earned and current shows how many you have left to offer up as a bounty.
endangeredmassa
@Ken Paul: Well, now you can flag your own answer as accepted. If that happens, the bounty should just expire.
@derobert: That's not a bad idea. But if no one ever answers your question then your reputation points are lost. Perhaps you could set an expiration date on your bounty as well.
daddywarbox
Not to derail, but I may have an alternative idea: http://stackoverflow.uservoice.com/pages/general/suggestions/98836-relative-reputation
Ken Paul
In order for this to work, you need to acknowledge that some questions don't have a single, absolute answer. In many cases, the only correct answer is "It depends ...", and multiple responders will elucidate the alternatives. Also, what happens when you answer your own question, and therefore can't flag the correct answer as The Answer?
icelava
Is part of this plan to include queries similar to Amazon, where it would track a user's view, review, wishlist, purchase, etc history and make Recommendations based on those patterns? In SO's case, it would make guesses on past Accepted Answers or high votes of a user and recommend him/her other questions that he/she may answer.
derobert
So, what prevents someone from offering a bounty and then just never awarding the correct answer checkmark?
May I suggest that when you offer a bounty, that rep should be deducted from you immediately, so that you can't game the system like that.
coolcoder
Surely this would encourage only questions with a bounty to be answered?
tanglin
I agree with @Yaakov. This is just the Experts Exchange model of offering more "points" for questions you want answered (and points are either purchased for $$ or earned by answering other questions). As a Master in that community, I can say the system breaks because everyone thinks their question is urgent and they offer the max allowed points to get it answered.
Greg Smalter
Don't dilute what reputation means. If a well-respected user puts up 2000 points for a bounty, and someone answers it, lowering the user's reputation by 2000 is just inaccurate. They are not any less reputable than they were previously. If you want to do this, have a bounty currency that grows with rep, and you can spend the currency but your rep stays the same.
tzot
Yes. Older upvoted questions should automatically award more rep points to the accepted answer. Way to go, mabster.
clively
I think this should be more of a "rep" trading system. In other words, I've accumulated 2000 rep points and I'm willing to give someone 100 of my points to answer my question or even one I'm interested in.
cdman
I like mabster's idea of giving more reputation for answering older questions. This would solve two issues at once.
hotnuts21
I suppose my suggestion for inviting 'experts' could also be tied into this, if that person responds then a slightly higher bounty could be offered?
http://stackoverflow.uservoice.com/pages/general/suggestions/37087
travis
I kinda just took things into my own hands and offered up $5 of my own money:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14857/why-does-vs-2005-keep-giving-me-the-x-is-ambiguous-in-the-namespace-y-error
(note the "bounty" tag)
buti-oxa
I still predict the usual bounty will be 1, thus promising 16 pts.
Then, the only difference between this and "still need answer" button is: I can say I am still waiting only once until I get some reputation. Maybe it is a good restriction, but I am no sure of that.