Option of removing bounties

Question

According to Mi Yodeya rules, once someone has offered a bounty it cannot be reversed. My issue with this is, that sometimes no adequate answer has been given and one is still forced to give the bounty. Could there be an option, that if a moderator agrees that the question hasn't been answered adequately that the bounty is removed?

Answer 1

This is the way the bounty system works across the Stack Exchange network, and it is deliberate. To quote from the FAQ on the network Meta site:

Part of what you're "paying for" with a bounty is for higher question visibility and increased answerer motivation. A bounty does not guarantee a response and is not refunded if none are received.

And from a post there that more directly deals with this:

It's payment for a bid for an answer, not payment for actual answers themselves.

The way this mechanism works is not something that local moderators have any control over, and is almost certainly not going to change anytime soon.

That said, there is a "workaround" that some users have used on various sites on the network. Instead of officially setting a bounty, in which case the reputation is deducted immediately, they post on the local Meta site that they will give a bounty if anyone satisfactorily answers the question. While this does not provide the same benefit of being featured on the site's homepage, it may still provide the motivation to other users to invest time and effort in finding an answer.

To prevent it from getting out of hand, and to keep it organized, these "bounties" are usually combined into one Meta post.

Here are some examples from sites across the network:

https://codegolf.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5243/list-of-bounties-with-no-deadline https://puzzling.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4399/list-of-bounties-with-no-deadlines https://literature.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1091/list-of-bounties-with-no-deadline