Q:

When awarding bounty should it go to the most complete answer, or to the answer that was first?

I recently posted a question here. The answer with the checkmark is complete and correct (and answered first) however the answer I awarded the bounty to was more detailed.
I feel like I should be consistent with the checkmark and the bounty, but I hate to not reward a good answer by @Euro. Note that the checkmark was awarded a day or so before the bounty. What should I do here?

A:

You don't need to be consistent - this is a very reasonable way to reward both answerers. In the end, it is entirely up to you which answer you accept / reward your bounty to*. If other community members disagree with you, they can upvote the answer they find the best (or even award a bounty themselves).
* except for 'reputation fraud', using bounties/votes to transfer reputation from one account to another.

A:

Don't value "answered first" too much.  If someone writes a better answer, giving the better one the checkmark is perfectly valid.  Upvote both.
The goal of the checkmark is not just to reward the answerer, but to help the next person who comes by with your problem.  A detailed, "better" answer at the top does exactly this.
Now, the shorter answer could easily be "better", so this doesn't mean "more details = checkmark".
The bounty, in comparison, is just a "thank you" or a "this needs more attention".  I've even seen people double-bounty questions and give some to both good answers, while picking the better one for a checkmark.

