What is the policy on older questions rendered obsolete by newer ones?

Question

I just got this question (Is there any diplomatic effect for “You'll pay for this” responses when talking to other players?) in my Close Votes queue. It's being put up for closing as a duplicate of this similar question (What are the effects of Civilization V responses to other leaders?). The two questions overlap in content; the second question asks the same thing as the first, but generalises the question to encompass other responses as well.

However, the first question was asked more than two years before the proposed duplicate. The description of the duplicate reason states: "This question has been asked before and already has an answer."

I voted to leave the question open, since it was asked before the proposed duplicate, so the first clause of the close reason doesn't apply. Am I just being pedantic here, or is that the right course of action?

Answer 1

I flagged the older question as a duplicate of the newer one because the newer question had the best answer.

Ideally, duplicate questions are never asked or are quickly closed. In this case where the duplication went undetected and the new, duplicate question was answered, I think that keeping the question with the best answer open is the right thing to do.