88

enter image description here

Can we please move the "Start a bounty" link to be in the same location as all of the other action buttons? It makes no sense to me for this to be buried after the comments - It's an action on the Question. It can be very difficult to locate, especially when your question gets a lot of comments.

I don't think this should be that difficult to implement - it's just moving the location of a design element. Can we please get this button moved?

Improve this question
16
  • 23
    This is one of those requests that's just so plainly head-smackingly obvious once you've pointed it out...
    – mhlester
    Commented Jun 16, 2014 at 15:34
  • 4
    This is a fantastic idea. I'm always searching for a way to add a bounty and most of the time miss it.
    – MDMoore313
    Commented Jun 16, 2014 at 15:35
  • 1
    Related: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/92286/…
    – Undo
    Commented Jun 16, 2014 at 15:37
  • 2
    Also-related (the question that made me start grumbling about it): meta.serverfault.com/questions/6389/cannot-create-bounty-bug -- I'm almost certain they just missed the fact that it's under the comments...
    – voretaq7
    Commented Jun 16, 2014 at 15:39
  • 1
    Related: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/60196/move-the-bounty-link
    – Chris S
    Commented Jun 16, 2014 at 15:39
  • 1
    Not so sure about that. For most users, this is just noise and they don't care what it is and are more interested in the comments.
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jun 16, 2014 at 15:40
  • 2
    @ShadowWizard but for the users who want to set a bounty and don't realize the link is buried after the comments it becomes a UX problem... (and they ask on Meta which makes it my UX problem - complaints roll uphill :-D )
    – voretaq7
    Commented Jun 16, 2014 at 15:45
  • Perhaps a better change would be to make it a first-class UI element (an icon by the voting arrows or something similar - but that's probbaly a lot more UI work than just moving the text link around...
    – voretaq7
    Commented Jun 16, 2014 at 15:47
  • @mhlester Apparently my search-foo wasn't too strong because it's been head-smackingly obvious to at least 3 other people :-)
    – voretaq7
    Commented Jun 16, 2014 at 16:22
  • 5
    Another idea is always showing the "start a bounty" link, even for new questions, and when clicked it would explain why bounty can't be started. This way much more people will see it, click, and learn about bounties without having to give you UX problems. :)
    – Shadow Wizard
    Commented Jun 16, 2014 at 19:48
  • I just realized that I upvoted this and it doesn't have a freehand circle. Am tempted to edit so I can downvote. And... is that comic sans?
    – user1228
    Commented Oct 11, 2016 at 17:02
  • 1
    @Won't It is absolutely NOT Comic Sans! (It's "Chalkboard" - Apple's version of Comic Sans.) And how do you know I'm not just REALLY GOOD at drawing ovals? :)
    – voretaq7
    Commented Oct 11, 2016 at 17:06
  • 2
    I placed a bounty for the first time recently, and I had to actually look for the button. I expected it to be where it should be.
    – hat
    Commented Jan 11, 2020 at 16:26
  • 1
    This was marked as status-planned a year and a half ago. Is this actually planned or just set aside and forgotten?
    – David K
    Commented Jul 20, 2021 at 17:18
  • 3
    @Yaakov This feature request was tagged as status-planned about 3.5 years ago. Is there any update on this?
    – Cave Johnson
    Commented May 16, 2023 at 18:55

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
24
+100

Indeed. The current place isn't intuitive and actually causes confusion, also by regular users (like it did with me just now).

The start bounty should be shown in the button bar under a question, and it should always be visible, so it is consistent with all the other buttons:

enter image description here

You can debate about its position. I just put it at the end for now. Maybe some extra coloring (the bounty blue) could bring some emphasis on it. I brought back the label to a single word to avoid confusion.

Improve this answer
4
  • 1
    I like this solution and I think the positioning is much better than its current position
    – Cave Johnson
    Commented Mar 1, 2017 at 19:20
  • There's a problem: this link wouldn't show the amount of time left until a question is eligible for a bounty. Currently, the bounty link is replaced by "question eligible for bounty in x hours" for new posts, so your solution wouldn't be convenient to people waiting.
    – Sir Cumference
    Commented Mar 2, 2017 at 23:53
  • 1
    @SirCumference One possible fix would be to disable the link and show a tooltip with the amount of time left. This is somewhat consistent with the Edit link. Sometimes the Edit link is grayed out and you have to hover over it to get a tooltip to find out why you can't edit.
    – Cave Johnson
    Commented Mar 3, 2017 at 23:28
  • 1
    @SirCumference Even moving the "start a bounty" button in its current form to be located directly under the "share edit close flag" buttons would be better than what it is now.
    – David K
    Commented Mar 8, 2019 at 13:24
4
+50

I don't know how it will be done, but the following javascript moves it.

var tmp=document.getElementsByClassName("bounty-link")[0].parentNode;tmp.parentNode.removeChild(tmp);document.getElementsByTagName("tbody")[1].appendChild(tmp);

You can test it to see how it will look, paste this in address bar (your browser must have enabled running js from address bar):

javascript:var tmp=document.getElementsByClassName("bounty-link")[0].parentNode;tmp.parentNode.removeChild(tmp);document.getElementsByTagName("tbody")[1].appendChild(tmp);

And hit Return. Good? So will wait till devs will do something. (Actually <div> with class bounty-link bounty should be added to the second <tbody>)

Improve this answer
9
  • 10
    Expecting the end user to work around bad design is not a "solution". Something that requires externally manipulating the page (whether via extensions, userscripts, typing javascript in the URL line, or other means) doesn't solve the problem for casual users, and it is an unrealistic expectation for someone from a non-technical site like English Language & Usage to have to have the technical skills to implement such a workaround. (TL;DR: The solution has to work for grandma & grandpa, not the IT department.)
    – voretaq7
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 17:33
  • 2
    @voretaq7 I posted this script so as you can see how will it look. I wrote that "I don't know how it will be done".
    – nicael
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 17:34
  • ah - as a proof of concept I think it looks OK (though Safari does some unholy things that result in my having TWO links to add a bounty - one above and one below the comments -- I think that's a Safari bug though). My tirade isn't against you but rather against the userscripts-dependence that seems to be increasingly common on the technical Stack sites ("The UI is clumsy? It's fine if you install these userscripts!"), I find it hard to sell people on installing browser scripts to make websites work well...
    – voretaq7
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 17:39
  • 1
    @voretaq7 Wait, what Safari are you using? In Safari 7 there is one link. i.sstatic.net/FGFEY.png
    – nicael
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 17:41
  • @voretaq7 test now plz.
    – nicael
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 17:49
  • I'm running Safari 7.0.4 - Seems to work properly with that change (but I also restarted Safari which may have something to do with it).
    – voretaq7
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 19:08
  • @voretaq7 Yeah, its because of fixed code. Now works properly. Restarting Safari didn't matter.
    – nicael
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 19:10
  • I'm always willing to blame Safari's Javascript engine for problems - it's an endless source of difficulty for one of our webapps here :)
    – voretaq7
    Commented Jun 27, 2014 at 19:42
  • @nicael I will use your code to make a userscript but you get the bounty for your effort.
    – HackerKarma
    Commented Aug 17, 2015 at 12:01

You must log in to answer this question.

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