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In comments made to this answer: https://gaming.stackexchange.com/a/251899/88641

I get criticised for placing an bounty on the post while it allready has an accepted answer. After guiding the user to the valid reasons of placing a bounty he (if I understand him correct) is noting the fact that there are other answers even worthyer so it was inappropriate to place the bounty.

So now I'm confused.

Is he right? Am I not allowed to place a bounty under some circumstances?

Or is he wrong and a bounty is also justifyable by subjective reasons as long it is awarded for content (not considering objective quality) and not for the person per se?

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    I'm pretty sure you can give bounties to anyone for any reason you want, as long as you don't give it to a second account of yourself.
    – Arperum
    Jan 18, 2016 at 14:31
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    To be completely fair: I very much disagree with the bounty you are giving. As a programmer I'm completely on @Frank's side in this debate.
    – Arperum
    Jan 18, 2016 at 14:36
  • @Arperum: Well I can't understand why. But this doesn't belong here ;)
    – Zaibis
    Jan 18, 2016 at 14:42
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    Indeed, but that's mostly to demontstrate that I agree with your right to bounty anything you want, however wrong I may find it.
    – Arperum
    Jan 18, 2016 at 15:08
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    I'd be in the same boat as @Arperum; you want to give away your rep, well, alright. That's your perogative, even if I disagree with it completely.
    – Frank
    Jan 18, 2016 at 23:09
  • I agree with what @Arperum says, you can give your bounty to anyone you want for any reason or no reason (except ofc giving it to friends/2nd accounts). I also disagree that mason's answer is worthy of a bounty as his answer is misleading at the very least. But again it is your rep to do with what you want.
    – Aequitas
    Jan 21, 2016 at 2:00

2 Answers 2

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@dakre18 is wrong. Users are free to reward bounties to any answer they feel deserve it, they're not just intended to draw more attention to a question. One of the default reasons for bounties makes this obvious:

One or more of the answers is exemplary and worthy of an additional bounty.

If @dakre18 thinks another answer is more deserving of a bounty then he's free to throw out a bounty himself, but he has no right or power to stop you from handing out bounties to answers you think deserve it.

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    who on earth is dakre18?
    – Aequitas
    Jan 21, 2016 at 1:54
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    @Aequitas He's the user who was telling Zaibis to remove his bounty.
    – Wipqozn Mod
    Jan 21, 2016 at 11:43
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As far as awarding bounties go, your rep is effectively yours to do with as you please. (After the imposed waiting period, of course.) You don't have to justify your awards to anyone.

That said, just like with down-votes, close-votes, etc., it is polite to leave some sort of explanation as to why you've awarded a bounty in a particular way. This especially applies when you're awarding it in a way that others might not logically expect, given the context of the thread and whatever reason you posted for the bounty at the start of it.

But ultimately, just like any votes, nobody really needs to know why you awarded a bounty. That's entirely up to you.

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