(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); So I have noticed lately that the word "Official" has been popping up a lot and has seemed to have lost its meaning. People thinking that putting the word "official" at the start of the topic makes their topic more superior, you could say, than someone else's topic about the same subject when really, there is nothing 'official' or 'superior' about that topic than Freds' topic further down the page.

The meaning of the word official taken from You must login or register to view this content.

of⋅fi⋅cial  [uh-fish-uhl]
–noun
1. a person appointed or elected to an office or charged with certain duties.
–adjective
2. of or pertaining to an office or position of duty, trust, or authority: official powers.
3. authorized or issued authoritatively: an official report.
4. holding office.
5. appointed or authorized to act in a designated capacity: an official representative.
6. (of an activity or event) intended for the notice of the public and performed or held on behalf of officials or of an organization; formal: the official opening of a store.
7. Pharmacology. noting drugs or drug preparations that are recognized by and that conform to the standards of the United States Pharmacopeia or the National Formulary.

The only way a something is official is if the owner, or a representative of the owner, for the thing they make or do says it is official themselves. Anything said by Hobo Barry over there is Unofficial.
Examples.
*this* website says *this* game is out on 10/10/10. This is unofficial.
The President of the company making the game says the game is out on the 09/10/10 is official.

To sum up, if you are still reading, the only way a topic can be official is if an Admin, or a Mod, approves the topic to be official.

Thanks for reading my long, boring but 100% needed rant.

It has been around before the hack

Yeah, it was a little here and a little there but now its everywhere.
Didn't mean to make that rhyme :S

Yeah it has, And it's really annoying like no offence to noobs or but... They just ****OFFICIAL**.. and they only have like 20 posts or something .

True. The only way a thread can even be made official (on NGU) is if it is made by a moderator or an Admin. Otherwise, your just making an eyesore that will piss a bunch of people off.

Well in some cases it's okay, like back in W@W days I made a thread for Nazi Zombie strategies and titled it "Official" ended up being stickied =]...but in my opinion if the post is well organized/contains good information putting "Official" isn't a bad thing, otherwise it's just people try to get you to click the thread

It still wasn't official though. You had the idea that a mod liked, still not making it official. If it is going to have lots of good info and well organised and stuff, maybe if it is a good post like lots of good info and shit posting it as normal and if a mod/admin likes and agrees they themselves can edit the title to Official, in which it will actually be fully official for NGY, otherwise soon the whole forum would have "***Official***" everywhere you look.

Yea... How could something be official by a random person?