What is meta? ×

Occasionally, I'll see moderator flags because something is off-topic (suitable for migration from SO to SU / SF, but this MSO question would apply in any direction), but somebody has added a bounty.

Problem: once a bounty exists, it is not possible for users to vote for close/migrate/etc, even if it would do better on another site.

So far, I think the tactic has been (slightly reluctantly) to leave it alone, perhaps adding a comment.

TBH; I don't know what would happen if I tried to forcibly close/delete/migrate them - none of the bounty questions have been too bad that it has to go. Other than "spot the off-topic posts more quickly", any suggestions on policy here?

share|improve this question

2 Answers 2

up vote 11 down vote accepted

I recently noticed that there is a option to remove and refund bounty under the mod options for a bounty question. I would assume in a really severe case you can just remove the bounty and then let the community close, or close and migrate yourself?

share|improve this answer
OOh! Shiny... I've never noticed that! Todays post now resolved, cheers. –  Marc Gravell Oct 5 '09 at 20:54

My first impulse is to reply, "migrate it and let them take the rep hit as punishment for posting an off-topic question".

But that's... slightly unkind. Rare though these might be, you probably don't need the sort of headaches such an action would give rise to.

Ideally, you could punch a button somewhere that would close or migrate the question and refund the bounty on the original site. Once in the proper location, it may be that the question would be answered without need for a bounty anyway, but if not then at least they wouldn't be out the rep on the first site.

Lacking such a tool, you're probably best off just letting the bounty expire (or be awarded), and then migrating the question. They'd still lose their bounty (and following a recalc, i assume the person whose answer was accepted would as well)... but at least they'd have the opportunity to get some value out of it.

share|improve this answer
I definitely agree with the desire for a button to migrate that will automatically refund the bounty. –  TheTXI Oct 5 '09 at 20:19

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .