we have been running the UTHM Forge bounty board for 9 months now and we still do not have a great answer for "how much should this bounty be."
the heuristic we use today: "what would a senior engineer in this stack charge for 8 hours of focused work?" which gives a range of RM 350 to RM 1,200 for most bounties, with a FYP-grant ceiling of RM 1,500 for capstone-aligned work.
is that right? are we under-paying? over-paying? let me know what you think.
— @haikal.fskm · 5 May 2026
<3 replies>
@rendra.fkaas5 May, 06:30
i think the 8-hour heuristic is wrong. most bounties take me 2 to 4 hours. you are paying me 8 hours of senior rate for half a day of actual work. either:
1. lower the bounties (and accept more claimants per bounty)
2. bundle bounties into larger 1-week engagements (and pay more)
@tsara.fpm6 May, 01:15
the 8-hour heuristic is correct for "fair pay" but you should not price bounties on "fair pay" alone. price them on the value to UTHM Forge. an OCR pipeline that unblocks 10k scanned theses is worth more than 8 hours of senior rate.
@haikal.fskm6 May, 12:01
both takes land. we are going to split bounties into two tiers: "standard" (8h rate) and "high-impact" (priced on risk + value). more on this in the next bounty board update.