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This question Free survey web application which provides easily printable single access codes is obviously asking for a service. It appears to me to be completely off-topic.

I attempted to flag it as such; SR responded

 Cannot close, question has a bounty

(or a message very similar to that).

Why should having a bounty change the requirements for a question's content? Based on this behaviour, I could ask any off-topic, rediculous, boorish or offensive question, and it could not be closed. That seems completely wrong.

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You can't vote to close a question while it has a bounty. I think the reasoning is that the bounty setter is trading reputation for an increased likelihood of getting answers; closing the question would be unfair since it would prevent answers.

However bounties are not an excuse to keep a bad question around. If a question clearly needs closing, flag it as “in need of moderator intervention” and explain what's going on. Moderators can't close a question while it has a bounty, but they can refund the bounty. See How can we close questions with bounties? on the main meta for more information (errm, well, not much more).

In this case, I've refunded the bounty and closed the question, since it's looking for a service and not for software.

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  • "need closing, flag it ..." That's exactly what I tried to do, and the flag attempt was rejected. How am I then supposed to signal the moderators?
    – Ira Baxter
    Jul 5, 2015 at 14:33
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    @IraBaxter Ah, flag for moderator attention, not flag to close.
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Jul 5, 2015 at 14:44

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