How do Wikipedia’s conflict of interest policies affect what we can actually edit ourselves?

Wikipedia’s conflict-of-interest policies do not prohibit interested-party work on an article, they prescribe how to do it. Two policies set the rules: WP:COI defines who has a conflict of interest, and WP:PAID requires disclosure of any compensated editing. Together they point everyone with a material relationship to a subject toward the same compliant workflow.

Who the policies cover

• WP:COI, defines who. Conflict of interest is read broadly: it covers the subject, its employees, its PR firm, and anyone with a financial, personal, professional, or other material relationship to the topic.
• WP:PAID, requires disclosure. Anyone compensated to edit on a subject’s behalf must publicly disclose the employer, the client, and any other relevant affiliation.

The compliant workflow

For an editor with a disclosed conflict of interest, the prescribed sequence is:

1. Disclose the relationship publicly through the editor’s Wikipedia account, naming employer, client, and affiliation.
2. Propose, don’t edit. Raise changes as Talk-page edit requests rather than editing the article directly.
3. Source each change to reliable, independent, secondary outlets.
4. Let the community implement. Uninvolved editors review the proposal on its merits and decide whether to implement, modify, or decline it.

Two lanes, two outcomes

Five Blocks operates exclusively in the compliant lane.