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by viseztrance 1950 days ago
On stackoverflow you can spend your reputation on bounties for certain questions (niche, difficult) that would otherwise get ignored.

Personally I spent about 1000 reputation points on those, and some of the answers were surprisingly good.
2 comments
AuthorizedCust 1950 days ago
(I am the OP.) That's an excellent counterexample. Just out of curiosity, how many hours did you invest to get to the 1000 points?
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loloquwowndueo 1950 days ago
Sometimes if you give a good answer it will just sit there collecting points for all eternity. I did that a couple of times and I have several thousand points after a few years.
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viseztrance 1950 days ago
As someone has already replied, you slowly gather passive points from your earlier questions.

My account is from 2009, with 33 questions, and 120 answers and 10K points. It's a tough estimate, but I felt like I received my money's worth, sort of speak.

However, bare in mind that contributing was significantly easier 10 years ago, hence why most of my points stem from older questions and answers.

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k_sze 1950 days ago
The dynamics of the StackOverflow/StackExchange reputation system is interesting.

The way I look at it is that, if your question meets these two conditions, you shouldn't have to put a bounty on it:

1. it is phrased/framed in a way that is palpable;

2. it is intrinsically interesting.

With that in mind, I've never put any bounty on my questions on StackOverflow. But then I wonder, can reputation points be "invested"? Would it be possible to give a little push to my question by spending some points on a bounty, and then earn them all back and more via upvotes? Has anybody successfully done that?

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hombre_fatal 1950 days ago
The bounty system is good for the questions you’re asking after ten years of experience.

If you can’t figure it out, then you’re asking a question with an incredibly small audience. If you’re lucky, some more internet points are just enough to make it worth someone’s while, or as it once happened to me, attract someone who was compelled to help you with the research.

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forgotmypw17 1950 days ago
I,ve had several niche questions sit around for a week or two, then get answered within 24 hours after I put a bounty on it.

I,m a dev with QA experience, I can write them well.

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