Michael Snow wrote:
Isn't a directive from the front office saying "nobody can edit this page" a top-down directive? How else would you describe it?
Why does it need to be described in the first place? For rhetorical purposes, as is clear by the choice of description you're applying.
How can we talk about things on a mailing list of we aren't allowed to use words and phrases? I'm interested in discussing the class of cases where the front office gives a directive relating to an article, e.g. "do not unprotect this article"; or "rewrite this article from scratch with no pedophiles as authors"; or some other such directive. A shorthand way of referring to such cases, which captures the essence of the matter being disputed, is "top-down directive".
If you really prefer, I could say something like, "non-optional suggestions resulting from Wikimedia Foundation activity", but that seems a bit silly. Do you have a better term you'd prefer?
-Mark