Not at all! but the years get added manually, either by submitters or moderators.

What submissions did you see that needed a year but didn't get one?

Gotcha. I just went back and checked some and they all have years now. Hypothesis: this was a perception bias on my part. The decline of social media has increased my HN engagement so that I'm reading more posts earlier, before they've had the year added.

> Hypothesis: this was a perception bias on my part.

I don't know if it was or not but you definitely get a chocolate star for considering the possibility. You wouldn't (well, I can't) believe how uncommon that is!