What If I don't get any answer from Stack Exchange?

Question

I have posted a question in Stack exchange over a month ago and also started a bounty; which was ended as well but didn't get a solution.

I understand the question wasn't reached to the contributors because of incomplete detail, etc..., but I think the questioner should get a message something like improvement the way of asking questions if it wasn't good.

I really felt bad not received a solution with loss of bounty. Stack exchange should consider refunding the bounty if not got a solution for the question set as a bounty.

Please don't take me mistake, just posting what I have thought about Stack exchange. Thanks.

Answer 1

The bounty explanation page clearly states that the bounty is non-refundable. (but you already knew that). More info about how a bounty works: How does the bounty system work?.
I don't have the exact reasons to why is that, but I speculate that this rule exists to avoid fraud or misbehavior from the user that offers the bounty.
See the following scenario.

• User asks a question
• User offers bounty on the question
• User gets an answer that solves the problem.
• User does not offer the bounty
• Bounty is refunded after 7 days.
• Conclusion: User got the right answer and used the bounty as bait.

I know you can come up with cases like.. "Yeah, but refund the bounty if the answers have no upvotes or if there are no answers at all" but in my opinion this could spawn a lot of side-discussions.
For now, that is the rule on all the stackexchange network and I don't think it will change soon.
As to why you did not get an answer to your question, there could be multiple reasons.

• the question was not clear.
• the answer involved a lot of research and nobody wanted to invest the time.
• the request was a hard / impossible and nobody found the answer.
• ....

I don't think there is anything else you can do if you don't get an answer.
Maybe try to split the question in multiple questions each covering a small part of the main goal. This way you may get ideas that push you in the right direction.

Answer 2

As Magento is an e-commerce platform, I am trying to explain the situation to you in the same manner.

• Offering a bounty on a question is simply a sale on your store on a particular product (That is you question) & you have started a campaign for the promotion of it(On the place called Featured Question).
• Now as you are having a sale in your store & you have already started the promotion so definitely people will crawl on your product area(people will read your question).
• Now the customer will buy your product in following circumstances (User will answer to your question).
  • They are interested in that product (The question is users area of interest).
  • They are already using the same product (User have faced the same issue).
  • They want to try the new product(User is ready to do the required research for your question).
• Customer will not buy your product in following circumstances (User will not answer your question).
  • Customer is not using your product (User don't know the answer of your question).
  • Customer have not used such products previously so not interested (User have not faced such issue in the past).
  • Customer is not satisfied with the offer like you are asking the offer is available when they will shop for 50,000 bucks (Your question requires alot of research to answer).

However if you got any sale or customer on your store or not, you have already paid the amount for the marketing/advertisement of your product & the marketing company will definitely not going refund your amount because here it was your choice to do the advertisement.

The bounty system is also work in the same manner on the Stack Exchange because we are not giving or getting any money here at this platform. So, for the advertisement of your question stack-exchange asks you to spend the reputations that you have earned.

I hope this example have cleared the concept of bounty to you on the stack-exchange.