Release 3.3.0

Siren 3.3.0 introduces collaborator groups. A collaborator group is a reusable set of collaborators (the people you pay, your affiliates among them) that you can bind to a program or distributor. The new Plus tier adds collaborator groups and a flat structure. The new Pro tier adds hierarchical structures and cascade payouts that credit peers across a chain.

Everything in this release is additive and opt-in. If you run a standard affiliate program, nothing changes and there is nothing for you to do. The new features live in the new Plus and Pro tiers, and your existing programs keep paying out exactly as before.

Collaborator Groups (Plus)

The Plus tier adds the collaborator group as its own record in Siren that you create and reuse. A group holds a set of members and a structure that describes how those members relate to each other.

• Create, edit, and delete groups from the admin, with name and description
• Manage members independently of the group’s structure
• Flat structure, where every member is a peer with no hierarchy
• Bind a group to a program or distributor to control who is eligible

Binding a group to a program makes a collaborator eligible for that program when they are a member of the bound group. This runs alongside Siren’s direct-binding eligibility, so a collaborator can become eligible through either path without one masking the other. The same binding works for distributors.

When a collaborator is deleted, Siren removes them from every group they belonged to. The groups themselves are left in place.

For an overview of the concept, see what are collaborator groups and the collaborator groups resource reference. To create your first group, see create a collaborator group.

Hierarchical Structures and Cascade Payouts (Pro)

The Pro tier adds two hierarchical structures and the cascade calculation strategies that walk them.

• Linear chain, where members are ordered by position
• Parent-child, where members form a tree
• Upline and downline cascade calculations for both engagements and metrics

A cascade walks a hierarchical group from the triggering collaborator and credits their peers one layer at a time. The triggering collaborator is never credited by the cascade. Upline walks toward the top of the chain, and downline walks toward the leaves.

Each layer has its own score, configured per layer from pointsAtLayer1 through pointsAtLayer5. A cascade can reach up to five layers. The score is awarded per peer per layer, not split across the peers on that layer. A layer left at zero stops the cascade, so you signal the end of the payout by leaving the higher layers unset. Inactive peers are skipped without consuming the layer’s slot, so the remaining peers on that layer still pay out at the full per-layer rate.

To choose a structure, see choosing a collaborator group structure. To choose a calculation, see choosing a calculation strategy. For a step-by-step setup, see configure cascade payouts.

Why Some Calculation Methods Disappear

This only affects programs and distributors that bind a collaborator group, and it does not change how your existing programs calculate payouts. Cascade calculations need a layered structure to walk. A flat group has no layers, so it cannot drive a cascade. When a flat group is bound, the calculation picker hides the cascade options, since there is nothing for them to walk. See why some calculation methods disappear for how the picker matches calculations to the structure that is bound.

For Developers

The collaborator group system is built to be extended. Custom structures, calculations, and eligibility resolvers register themselves by listening to registry events, with no changes required to Siren’s core or the built-in tiers.

• Register a custom structure resolver through the structure resolver registry event
• Register a custom engagement or metric calculation through the calculation registry events
• Register a custom eligibility resolver through the eligibility resolver registry events

See collaborator group structures and walker capabilities for the extension points, and the collaborator group events reference for the events each registry broadcasts.

Switching an existing group’s structure does not migrate per-member metadata. Membership rows are kept, but structure-specific keys such as a member’s position or parent are not translated to the new structure. Resolvers tolerate unknown and missing keys, so a member with no position sorts to the top of a linear chain.

Plugin Tiers

Siren is now available in additional tiers:

• Siren Plus adds collaborator groups, the flat structure, and group-bound eligibility
• Siren Pro adds hierarchical structures, layered walkers, and cascade payouts for engagements and metrics