I both agree that it's an idiosyncrasy that prioritizes the interests of the writer over the comfort of the reader, and love to see stuff like this on HN, because it's the only place in the world I'm exposed to it.

I was familiar with the general Long Now ethos, but seeing prefixed years in the wild and going down this HN rabbit hole has been worthwhile.

Also seeing how politely & reasonably you folks debated back and forth on this usage makes me love the HN community (if we can even call it that?) even more.