Afaik, this is the policy since day one.
It was aimed to be a FAQ site -- not just a question-answer site.. That's why it have community answer, allow the same poster answering his own question, encourage duping, allow other people to update/correct an existing answer,etc.
Back in those days:
1) Moderator knew the subject.
2) Most questions are "frequent" enough to qualify as FAQ.
3) When duped, the old answer is less likely to be outdated (because the site was new)
Afaik, this is the policy since day one. It was aimed to be a FAQ site -- not just a question-answer site.. That's why it have community answer, allow the same poster answering his own question, encourage duping, allow other people to update/correct an existing answer,etc.
Back in those days:
1) Moderator knew the subject.
2) Most questions are "frequent" enough to qualify as FAQ.
3) When duped, the old answer is less likely to be outdated (because the site was new)