<p><strong>Edit:</strong> The grace period on <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/29218/inference-on-a-probabilistic-graphical-model-with-observed-continuous-variable">this bounty</a> ended around around 7 hours ago with no automatic award per the rule mentioned in the original post so I'm wondering if there is (a) a significant lag between the time the grace period ends and the time the bounty is auto-awarded and/or (b) a glitch in the bounty auto-award system. Does anybody know from experience?  </p>

<p><em>I've edited the title to reflect this modified aim - this reflects somewhat of a shift in the direction of the question but I didn't think it was different enough to warrant creation of a new question</em></p>

<p><strong>Original post:</strong> I recently answered a question with a bounty on it and the owner of the bounty (also the asker of the question) accepted my answer <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/29218/inference-on-a-probabilistic-graphical-model-with-observed-continuous-variable">here</a>. There are no other answers to the question but the owner did not manually award me the bounty. Now, I've found in <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/56789/bounty-award-after-accepted-answer">this thread on meta SO</a> and in <a href="https://stats.stackexchange.com/faq#bounty">the bounty FAQ</a> the following: </p>

<p>"If ...</p>

<ul>
<li>the bounty was started by the question owner</li>
<li>the question owner accepts an answer during the bounty period</li>
<li>the bounty award period expires without an explicit award</li>
</ul>

<p>... then we assume the question owner liked your answer when they accepted it, and it gets the full amount of the bounty <strong>at time of bounty expiration</strong>."</p>

<p>The bolded part (which was bolded in the thread I'm quoting) is what my question is about. The bounty expired a couple of hours ago and meets the three conditions but was not awarded to me at the time of expiration. I'm not worried because it appears I will get the bounty after the grace period, but I guess what I'm asking is: was this an error, or was the poster on Meta SO taking the FAQ material too literally? I'd also be curious to know what would happen if the bounty owner were to unaccept my answer now - are all bets off or does it only matter that it was accepted at the time the bounty closed? </p>
