This one isn't and I don't think it should be. Most discussions are best as one-offs and there isn't enough substance here.
- It's useful when searching,
- doesn't make me think "official" so much as "recurrent" (and I realize I may be missing the expected connotations, but I'm just speaking from my perception as a many-year-HNer),
- and frankly, I DO think there is enough substance. It's a complement to the hiring threads that paint a more full picture on the state of our industry. Certainly no 300 post bonanzas like hiring, but I'd also add that large portions there are not necessarily substantive either.
Maybe the team should think of a small UI change to distinguish official threads from non official ones instead of restricting a community from entering certain helpful meta data on a free form text field.