One of my systems runs a nightly job with two sets of manners. On 154 rows it overwrites whatever it finds and asks nobody. On 15 rows it cannot change a single field; the best it can do is file a request and wait. Same job, same feed, same table. The only difference is whether a human being ever touched the row.
Two doors
The system is a command center for a workforce development operation. The State of Illinois publishes a directory of workforce centers, and every night my sync pulls that feed and compares it against what I have. Most of those sites, 154 right now, are anonymous directory entries. Nobody on my side has ever opened one. For those, the feed writes straight through. New address, new phone, new hours, done. Arguing with the state about a row nobody looks at would be silly. The feed is the only party that knows anything about that row, so the feed decides.
Fifteen sites are different. Those are partnered centers, rows people on my side have filled with staff notes and visit history. Someone drove out there. Someone wrote down which door to use and who to ask for. When the feed disagrees with one of those rows, the sync does not write. It queues the change in a table called WorkNetPendingChange and waits for a person to approve it or reject it.
