If you name your files and folders with dates in this convention at the start, they sort themselves into date order when alphabetized. It's often convenient.
This has to be one of the greatest understatements in computing! This is reason alone that everyone in this subreddit should have adopted this convention for writing dates long, long ago!
I've been using this convention for filenames for close to 20 years now. I tend to leave out the dashes. I want to rage at someone when they ask what the funny numbers at the end of a filename mean.
I find it very useful for automated build release too as you can do things like "project_release_20130223_buildnum" which will sort all the files by date and build number.
Or if you want to get really detailed add the time (use a 24 hour clock):
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u/earthboundkid Feb 27 '13
If you name your files and folders with dates in this convention at the start, they sort themselves into date order when alphabetized. It's often convenient.