Assume I have received an answer once which I upvoted and marked solved because it contained a helpful workaround and no other answer has been received for weeks. Now, working intensively with it I realize that the workaround is much more limited than I thought and decide to put a bounty on the question to get a better answer than a workaround. I can undo the "solved" mark, but I cannot undo the upvote without the answer being edited. That's good behaviour if there's no bounty, but against my interests and the best outcome of the bounty and the question if there's a bounty set.

Example: How to avoid log being displayed after travis_wait?

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    Why did you upvote it before you fully tested it? – fbueckert Jul 5 '18 at 16:40
  • @Davy actually, since we all know there is such a thing as pity upvotes.... I'd be worried of giving that power to users. They'll downvote themselves to get some pity rep and come out ahead -_- – Patrice Jul 5 '18 at 16:51
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    It's partially your fault when you upvoted it without testing. What you can do is to leave a comment under it explain which parts are wrong, hoping others whould not use that answer. – user202729 Jul 5 '18 at 16:54
  • @user202729 Please not that I'm not questioning that in general, but only in case I set a bounty on it. – Karl Richter Jul 5 '18 at 16:55
  • That doesn't make my statement wrong. – user202729 Jul 5 '18 at 16:56
  • The easy answer is that you have enough rep to do a very minor edit on the answer that goes through without review, then you can un-upvote. It's a bit of a clunky workaround sure – Patrice Jul 5 '18 at 16:58
  • @Patrice I thought about it, but it feels like cheating/hacking SO. – Karl Richter Jul 5 '18 at 16:59
  • Oh I get that feeling of course. Just saying it is a possibility – Patrice Jul 5 '18 at 17:04
  • Make a minuscule edit such as code formatting or put two spaces somewhere, remove your upvote, and then roll back your edit. Additionally, based on your description the answer sounds like it was at least correct for some time so why do you wish to downvote it? – MonkeyZeus Jul 5 '18 at 17:12
  • @KarlRichter Patrice did not specify the edit rollback. It's allowed, legal, and publicly logged so if you feel like you're "cheating/hacking" SO then add a comment when editing such as "minuscule edit so I can remove upvote." – MonkeyZeus Jul 5 '18 at 17:14
  • @MonkeyZeus Right, I just want to undo an upvote. – Karl Richter Jul 5 '18 at 17:16
  • Once you've edited their answer then just click the upvote arrow to remove the upvote, no need to downvote. – MonkeyZeus Jul 5 '18 at 17:17
  • Honestly, your edit comment further confuses me with what your goals are. If you are going to re-upvote after the bounty has been awarded then why remove the upvote at this point? Is this some ploy to encourage other people to answer? If someone else has an answer then they will answer regardless of the scores of existing answers. I would have personally just unchecked the "Accepted" checkmark and added a comment as to why their ultimately failed for you. – MonkeyZeus Jul 5 '18 at 17:26
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    Minor edits do not automatically notify the user nor do downvotes/score-loss. As for awarding the bounty, read the How is a bounty awarded? section. – MonkeyZeus Jul 5 '18 at 17:33
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    @YvetteColomb You're suggesting it youself in your answer. – Karl Richter Jul 6 '18 at 8:56

Frankly this type of editing to reverse a vote is really bad form and not necessary. The bounty will not be automatically awarded to an answer that was posted before the bounty was placed.

"... the highest voted answer created after the bounty started ..."

A trivial edit so you can reverse your upvote to help ensure the question will not get a bounty, then after the bounty is awarded you'll put the upvote back is an abuse of the edit system. If a post deserves an upvote it deserves an upvote period.

How is a bounty awarded?



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