User talk:Smallbones/Proposed commercial editing policy/sandbox

Permissible actions insufficient
Commercial editors (whatever they are defined as, I've raised a query on the old page on that) have their permissible actions narrowed to such a degree that we're shooting ourselves in the foot, even if you agree with the base policy.

They currently can't edit at the Teahouse or Helpdesk, so if they have any questions about these rules, or (say) editing a talk page, or submitting a rename request to move into compliance, they can't do it. All of those would actually make it harder for them to meet the ruleset.

They also can't edit at AN and ANI, so can't report actions taken against them or the pages they're watching, such as non-BLP vandalism which this ruleset wouldn't let them work on.

I'm still not sure why we can let them post sources that we generally wouldn't accept for anything but the most basic information but prohibit posting any regular source. Sure, they presumably won't post sources that cast them in a negative light, but that hardly rules out a majority of sources. The current phrasing effectively bars them from any participation while trying to make them think they can still provide something other editors will consider, which seems duplicitous. Nosebagbear (talk) 09:42, 16 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Probably best to continue to discuss it on the main talk page. I just reflected the previous draft here. isaacl (talk) 14:34, 16 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Somehow I missed certain pages that are allowed to be edited from the main draft; I've added them into the sandbox draft. isaacl (talk) 16:17, 19 July 2020 (UTC)