[sp0rk]

It's just a Hacker News convention to include the year in parentheses if the article isn't freshly published. It doesn't have anything to do with the content of the article itself.

[Retr0id]

Sure, but it's generally only done when that added context is important. I think this article could easily have been written yesterday.

[lapcat]

> Sure, but it's generally only done when that added context is important.

No, it's almost always done, unless someone forgets.

Currently in the top 3 pages of HN there are 12 submissions with (20XY) at the end of the title. It's extremely common.