I know this is a “how long’s a piece of string” question, but what kind of publishing schedules do people usually run?
Our users obviously believe that their content must be published immediately and, as a result, our incremental runs several times an hour. This means that - with the touch-parent effect - the server is effectively publishing something almost all the time.
This is a mind-set I’d like to try to start changing and so it would be useful to know if we’re any different that the other users out there or if this kind of situation is the norm.
If you are on Version 6.6 or later, you might want to consider Demand Publishing (Publish Now). Users with the correct rights can publishing their Content Items immediately.
For details, see “Implementing Demand Publishing (Publish Now)”, p. 342 of the Implementation Guide (Version 6.7 link).
You are absolutely correct in that this varies greatly based on the implementation. As Robert mentions, using Demand Publishing is an option. However, this may not be the best solution based on a number of factors, including # of users, amount of content, throughput, etc. I’d recommend setting up a fairly generic schedule (every 3 hours for example), and setting a baseline over a few weeks. Take a look at how many items of each different type are published, and when they tend to be published. If you see that your General Articles are being published consistently across the day, but Press releases are primarily being released in the afternoons, use this information to create a schedule that publishes your content on a schedule that works for you.
Yes, we have implemented Publish Now but at the moment that’s limited to Admin users only. We’ve also considered rolling it out to other users. I take your point about monitoring the current publish and trying to establish a better schedule in this way.
Would you say that every three hours is a pretty good starting point for most implementations? Or was this just an example?
Every three hours is a pretty good spot to start. I’d also make sure that you make sure your Contributors are aware of the Publishing Schedule. The more educated your user are about the “test” schedule, the more beneficial feedback you can get from them when you need to set a more firm schedule.