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I recently noted that a bounty was offered on the question Is it unethical for me to not tell my employer I’ve automated my job? indicating that it has not received enough attention:

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I also noticed that this is actually the highest voted question on The Workplace, currently with 29 answers and several of them with more than 100 upvotes.

I could not help finding this puzzling, as the questions has clearly received several great answers and opinions from several different users and points of view. What reasons could there be to offer a bounty on such question claiming it has not received attention?

Is it possible that the user offering the bounty selected an incorrect reason for the bounty, possibly wanting to get a canonical answer or reward one that is already given as exemplary?

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    There is an answer with 547 votes....that is a hell of a lot of attention.
    – Neo
    Sep 22, 2017 at 16:40
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    Indeed, as it is the 250 Favorites, +420K views and 742 votes it has
    – DarkCygnus Mod
    Sep 22, 2017 at 16:42
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    First time I noticed this question... looks like a dupe... voting to close and delete... hehe
    – Kilisi Mod
    Sep 22, 2017 at 23:09
  • He may have been taking the mick. Sep 29, 2017 at 11:21

2 Answers 2

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Is it possible that the user offering the bounty selected an incorrect reason for the bounty, possibly wanting to get a canonical answer or reward one that is already given as exemplary?

It's possible.

And it's possible that the user offering the bounty liked the question for some reason and just wanted it to get even more attention for that reason. Sort of like re-tweeting a cat video that had already gone viral.

You can also see that the particular user didn't like a certain phrase in the accepted answer. That may have been part of the motivation.

So it goes with features like bounties. Nobody needs to conform to the actual intent of the feature. Nobody is required to explain their motivation.

BTW, this isn't the first bounty placed on this question. The question had already had plenty of activity before the first bounty, too.

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  • Yes, I can see other bounties have been awarded before to this question ... I wonder if they were done for more obvious reasons and with the corresponding explanation on why that bounty waa offered. Thanks for your answer
    – DarkCygnus Mod
    Sep 23, 2017 at 13:56
  • Retweeting this answer... Sep 25, 2017 at 13:23
  • Did not realize another bounty had already been placed on this question...
    – Neo
    Sep 26, 2017 at 12:35
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Is it possible that the user offering the bounty selected an incorrect reason for the bounty, possibly wanting to get a canonical answer or reward one that is already given as exemplary?

Yes, I think the user probably meant to chose this option, as its the only option that makes sense. I think the benefactors answer garnered over 200 votes.

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    Good point, probably wanted to give some of that reputation back to other good answers
    – DarkCygnus Mod
    Sep 22, 2017 at 16:46

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