Exclusion rule hierarchy
When a respondent requests entry to a survey, the Cint Exchange performs eligibility checks. The checks run in a fixed order, and evaluation stops as soon as a condition is met.
Individual ID respondent exclusions (manual blocklists), Exclude within this project, and respondent activity exclusions can all be active simultaneously on a single target group. But there is an order of precedence on how exclusion rules apply to a target group survey:
| Order | Check | Block condition |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manual blocklist | The respondent's ID is on a manual blocklist. |
| 2 | Exclude within this project | The respondent completed another target group in the same project. |
| 3 | Respondent activity | The respondent is currently active in, or recently completed, an excluded target group. |
How each rule works
Manual blocklist
A manual blocklist is an explicit list of respondent IDs that should never be admitted to a target group, regardless of their participation history. It's evaluated first because it is the most authoritative signal — if an ID appears on the list, no further checks are needed.
Exclude within this project
When Exclude within this project is enabled on a target group, the Exchange checks whether the respondent has a Complete status in any other target group within the same project. If they do, the Exchange blocks them from entering.
This check is configured at the target group level and can be enabled or disabled independently per target group. It has no time bound — a Complete in any other target group in the project will trigger exclusion regardless of when it occurred.
Respondent activity exclusion
When a target group has respondent activity exclusions configured, the Exchange runs two sub-checks in sequence. Concurrent participation is not a separate top-level rule — it is only evaluated as part of this step.
Sub-check 1 — Concurrent participation
The Exchange checks whether the target group is live and the respondent's status is in_client_survey. If both conditions are true, the Exchange blocks the respondent.
Sub-check 2 — Activity history
If the target group is completed or paused, the Exchange checks the respondent's activity history. If they completed an excluded target group within the last 90 days, the Exchange blocks them.
Only Complete statuses trigger the activity history check. If a respondent was terminated or screened out of a past survey, the Exchange doesn't exclude them.
For details on how the 90-day window is calculated, see how respondent activity exclusions work.
Constraints
Some scenarios don't apply to a target group:
- A target group cannot exclude itself. Re-entry behavior for a target group's own respondents is handled by your account's re-entry configuration. To review or adjust that setting, contact your Cint account CSM or IC.
- A target group cannot exclude the project it belongs to. Exclude within this project deduplication is handled by the exclusion flags available at the target group level.
- Exclusion rules apply to respondents entering after the rule is configured. Changes do not affect respondents who have already entered the target group.