This seems like a rose colored look at SO. I'm sure the candor was a little bit more pleasant than usenet, but I'm not sure it was ever a free flowing Q&A. From

This seems like a rose colored look at SO. I'm sure the candor was a little bit more pleasant than usenet, but I'm not sure it was ever a free flowing Q&A. From the beginning the founders were pretty clear that a "read the faq" culture was worth encouraging on the site, not coincidentally because that aligns well with SEO.