<p>I am new here, but a long-time user of stack overflow and other exchange sites.</p>

<p>I have used a bounty once, to see how it worked.  I have <em>wanted</em> to use a bounty many, many times.</p>

<p>Here's a problem I see with bounties (that is, a problem that makes them <em>not</em> useful for the only purpose I want to use them):</p>

<ul>
<li><p>I only ever want to put a bounty on something <em>because it's urgent</em>.  I want to urge people to work on it by offering an incentive.</p></li>
<li><p>I cannot put a bounty on something for two days.  During that time, I just solve the problem on my own <em>because it's urgent</em>.</p></li>
</ul>

<p>Until I read Glen_b's answer, I couldn't think of a use-case for them (because of the time restriction).  Also, looking at his 4th link (Who gives bounties to what), it appears that Glen_b does about half the bounties on this site (after a cursory glance... I didn't look closely).</p>
