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User Edge Cases

Edge Cases/User Edge Cases.md
sharedUpdated Aug 23, 2026

User Edge Cases

Purpose

Account-level edge cases not covered by the happy-path User Flows (01. Business Logic).

Cases

  • Account holds both Merchant and Creator roles (allowed per User Roles' default) — what happens if this same user applies to their own campaign? Should be blocked explicitly; self-dealing undermines the whole attribution/trust model.
  • Merchant or Creator deletes their account mid-active-campaign/application — handled via Soft Delete (03. Database); existing Sales/Commissions must remain intact and resolvable even after the account is soft-deleted.
  • Duplicate application attempt — blocked at the database level via the unique constraint on (campaign_id, creator_profile_id) per 03. Database → Constraints; API should return a clear 409 (per 07. API → Error Responses), not a generic failure.
  • Creator's Paddle onboarding incomplete — if a Creator is approved for a campaign but hasn't finished Paddle seller onboarding, they shouldn't be able to generate a live AffiliateLink yet (a link with no way to receive payout is a trust problem, not just an inconvenience). Needs an explicit "onboarding incomplete" gate before link activation.

Open Questions

  • Exact UX for the Paddle-onboarding-incomplete gate (blocked entirely vs. link works but payout is held) — recommend blocking link activation entirely rather than accruing unpayable commission, to avoid a confusing backlog — RESOLVED, see Update (2026-08-07) — Hard Block below.

Update (2026-08-07): RESOLVED — Hard Block

Founder-confirmed: blocked outright, no exceptions. A CreatorProfile cannot submit an Application to a Campaign owned by the same User's MerchantProfile. Enforced at the database constraint level where possible (matching creator_profile.user_id against the campaign's owning merchant_profile.user_id at application-creation time) and re-checked at the API layer (04. Security → Authorization's "UI is not a trust boundary" rule applies here too — this check runs server-side regardless of what the UI shows).

Update (2026-08-23): Paddle Removed, Swich Confirmed, Offer Replaces Campaign

Founder decisions, full reasoning in 02. Architecture Decision Log.

  • "Campaign"/"campaign" throughout this page means "Offer"/"offer" — no separate Campaign entity (01. Domain Model). The self-dealing rule, duplicate-application constraint (now offer_id, creator_profile_id), and soft-delete handling above are all unchanged in substance.
  • "Creator's Paddle onboarding incomplete" → "Creator's Swich payee registration incomplete." Same hard-block gate (resolved: block link activation entirely, not "link works but payout held") — only the processor name changes. See 05. Payout Process, [FEATURE_LIST.md §2.4].