With the latest fixes I think we are ready to release 2.18.3, right?

If you could review the remaining 2 patches, I will do the release this 
time, if that's okay with you.

I've reviewed. Go for it.

Last time you pulled the release tag and associated version bump into 
screened and resolved the conflict afterwards. The alternative is to 
avoid conflicts by pulling neither tag nor the version bump. Not quite 
sure what's the better policy here.

If no substantive patches have diverged, I like the idea of making it
clear via tag ordering that the release branch is fully merged.

I don't feel strongly though and I don't know if the conflicts
mounting up would become a pain.