I feel you’re talking about the date in brackets, which most people agree is useful. However the GP is discussing a different behaviour on HN where the word “How” is automatically dropped from headlines when it is used as a prefix. This behaviour doesn’t provide more information, as you state, though your opinion of its desirability might still differ from the GPs.
Yeah, I noticed that myself a bit ago, and edited my comment. You're correct in that I was talking about the date. Thread comprehension fail on my part. :)
