Usually the tag is only absolutely necessary when you’re re-posting something that’s already on HN and feel that enough time has passed that the link merits another discussion. If it’s from 2018 but it’s never been posted before, it doesn’t really matter.
01/01/2019
Anecdotally, most posts on HN refer to content created in the last ~ 2 weeks.
I would expect to start seeing people add (2018) once we hit February.