You can insert the Participation check node wherever you need it in your program. It also allows you to set your program’s participation requirements on a node level (as opposed to Participation settings that are applied on a program level). The Participation check node splits the journey into two branches wherever you put it:

• Contacts who meet the requirements continue their journey on the Yes path.
• Contacts who do not meet the requirements proceed along the No path.

In the following example, contacts can proceed along the Yes path only once ever. Otherwise, they will continue their journey on the No path.

Participation settings work on a program-level basis and filter your contacts based on the time when they entered the program (as opposed to the Participation check node that filters contacts based on the participation requirements on a node level).

When you are using Participation settings, an invisible filter is added to your program as follows:

• If your program starts with transactional or batch entry points, then Participation settings are applied right after the entry node.

• If your program starts with recurring entry points, then Participation settings are applied after the first Segment node.

Suppose you would like to send your defecting customers a 30% discount and make sure they receive it only once. Contacts who have already received the discount can get a free shipping voucher every 30 days. You need to add the following Participation check nodes to your program:

• Insert a Participation check node and set it to Only once ever.

• Contacts can proceed along the Yes path only once, so they cannot receive this valuable discount multiple times.
• Those contacts who have already received your discount will continue their journey on the No path.
• Put another Participation check node after the No branch and use the If the elapsed time since the contact last proceeded along the Yes path is at least option and set it to 30 days. This is required to ensure contacts will get the free shipping voucher only once every 30 days.

This is how your program will look:

Suppose that you would like to send your contacts vouchers from multiple programs using the same voucher pool. To make sure contacts only receive a voucher once every 30 days from all your programs, you need to create a shared Participation check setting as follows:

1. Switch the Make this check available in other programs toggle in the Participation check node.

2. Create a new Participation check and give it a name.

3. Select the If the elapsed time since the contact last proceeded along the Yes path is at least option and set it to 30 days.

4. Insert a Participation check node before the channel node that sends vouchers to your customers in all programs using the same voucher pool and select your shared Participation check settings.

Yes, the Participation check node works the same way as the program-level Participation settings and it provides you with more flexibility: you can put it wherever you need it. For more information, see sections Why should I be using the Participation check node? and What is the difference between the Participation check node and Participation settings?

When using the same Participation check node settings in multiple programs (i.e. the Make this check available in other programs switch is turned on), then the Participation check node remembers those contacts who have already passed through it even if you remove it from and add it again to the program:

• new contacts will continue their journey on the Yes path,
• contacts who have already passed through it will continue their journey on the No path.

Using the Participation check node will result in more transparent reporting:

• When using Participation settings, you can only see the filtered results because Participation settings are already applied at the entry node.
• When using the Participation check node, you can see all contacts who entered the program and also the ones who took the No branch (e.g. those who already participated in the program in the given timeframe) of the Participation check node.

Shared Participation check settings work as follows:

• When you switch off the Make this check available in other programs toggle and click Done, then a completely new Participation check is created and it will not keep its limited audience history collected previously.
• When you switch on the Make this check available in other programs toggle and click Done, then the Participation check keeps its history and brings it to the shared limited audience.

In this case, program-level Participation settings will be applied first even if the Participation check node comes right after the entry node. Please note that we don’t recommend inserting the Participation check node after the entry node and using Participation settings at the same time because the delay caused by both solutions may result in suboptimal performance.

Yes, there is a race condition. Interactions programs work on a single contact basis, so most likely the contact will continue the journey on the Yes branch in Interactions while taking the No branch in Automation Center in this case.

The Participation check node starts to process the contacts in the contact list. This processing means that it checks if they have already proceeded along the Yes path of this particular Participation check within the selected timeframe; if not, then it creates a record. Automation Center programs wait until all the results come back, and then a contact list will continue the journey on the Yes branch, while another will take the No branch depending on the contacts’ participation history within the selected timeframe.

A day in the context of the Participation check node means 24 hours regardless of calendar days.