[thrwyoilarticle]

I find it vexing when publications treat 'official world record' as a synonym for 'Guinness world record'. They have no official capacity. They just have very good PR to be able to capture the term for themselves and for us to be able to ignore their novelty Christmas book associations and friendliness with despots.

[matsemann]

That's no different than sport records, though. For instance 100m running. Some agency has decided their rules (equipment, drugs, wind etc), but someone could run it faster in a non-sanctioned event not following those rules. Which one to claim as WR?

[quickthrower2]

It is somewhat "decentralized" though. Not just Guinness.