"Official." It's the adjectival seal of approval. And far too frequently it means nothing.

The official speed limit on Interstate 880 as it passes by the Oakland Coliseum is 55 MPH. But as any non-rush hour driver can tell you, the unofficial speed limit there is closer to 70 MPH.

The same principle applies to the Raiders' "official" and "unofficial" presence on the Web. Check out "The Official site of the Oakland Raiders" (www.raiders.com) and you'll see that familiar shield logo and a message saying "coming soon."

We've dropped by that site every once in a while for the last year or so and seen the same "coming soon" malarkey every time. This week, at least, we found a promise of complete training camp coverage at the site starting Saturday. We won't hold our breath.

Of course, from an organization with the Raiders' history of secretive and paranoid relations with the press and the public, we don't expect much in the way of an "official Web presence."

And before you Raiders fans deliver any letter bombs complaining that "secretive and paranoid" remark is unjustified, go visit the Raiders' training camp in Napa and tell us you got past the security guards at the gate.

Every other team in the NFL lets its fans watch offensive linemen do jumping jacks in July, but apparently that sight is too sensitive for the Raiders to publicize.

Unofficially, however, the Raiders' presence on the Web is nearly unparalleled, with only those seemingly ubiquitous Dallas Cowboys fans and all those front-running Packers fans throwing more stuff on the Web.

As with other teams, there are Raiders sites both pedestrian (www.ualberta.ca/~schauda/) and near-perfect (www.vertgame.com).

While it's easy to understand the lack of "official" Raider content, it's somewhat surprising to note the volume of unofficial Raiders content on the Web.

"A lot of people don't consider Raiders fans to be the type to own a computer, much less to have the intelligence to do something ingenious with one," said Chris Peterson, a fan from Livermore who serves as Public Information Officer for the Oakland Raiders Internet Boosters (http://orib.org).

ORIB, with the self-explanatory name, may have the Raiders' most intriguing and unusual presence online.

The group evolved from members of the Raiders Fans Mailing List.

"When the team moved back to Oakland a bunch of us said 'Let's do the tailgate thing,'" said Richard Young, a RFML subscriber from Walnut Creek who came up with the idea for ORIB and currently is a Director-at-Large for the organization. "From there we said it would be real neat to make it official, with a name and t-shirts and that sort of thing, and that was pretty much it."

Young and his friends could have established almost any kind of Raiders fan club, so why did he come up with the internet boosters idea? Given that the tailgate party was organized through the RFML, the choice seems only logical.

"There are a lot of Raider fans not local to the Bay Area," Young said. "These people who are not local miss out on a lot, so we decided we would try to include everyone and maybe break some new ground.

"As far as we know we're the only ones who've taken that extra step."

ORIB has taken another extra step, growing from a group of tailgaters to an organization giving back to the community.

"When we first started, our goal was to meet up with friends, watch football, drink beer and have fun," said Peterson. "Our main goals now are to support the Raiders, have fun and do something for local charities."

Last year, ORIB organized a toy drive and delivered the gifts to Children's Hospital of Oakland. This year, Peterson said, the ORIB is looking to shift its focus to organizations with great need and less publicity than Children's Hospital, such as local schools' athletic programs.

If you're interested in helping ORIB's charitable drive by joining the group, "All you need is an e-mail address," Peterson said. Actually, all you need is an e-mail address and $15, which will get you a membership card and chatroom privileges at the ORIB site. Or for $35, members get the card and online privileges plus a slew of souvenirs such as ORIB t-shirts, mugs and mousepads.

It's nice that Raiders fans have a charitable social presence online, but you won't find a lot of Raiders news at the site. For that, the ORIB spokesman highly recommends RFML.

"We (RFML subscribers) heard about [the likely signing of] Eric Turner months before it happened," Peterson said. "We have a guy on the RFML who goes to the same barbershop Eric Turner goes to. The barber told him that Eric Turner said that one way or another he was going to make it happen and work out a deal to sign with the Raiders."

RFML is rumor central for Raiders fans, and many of the 40 to 50 postings per day (and even more during the season) are full of useless speculation. "About two-thirds of the personal insider information (the "my-cousin-dates-
Joe-Bugel's-nephew-and-he-said ..." stuff) is good," Peterson said.