Sitecore Publishing Restrictions explained through NFL player suspensions

I recently was asked by my Sitecore content team - how to avoid publishing time sensitive content before its allowed to be released to the public. It got me thinking how best to explain it without being too technical which can always be a problem with us tech folks explaining things to non-tech folks.

Think of your time sensitive content much like NFL player suspensions. I think most of us are familiar with Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, and Josh Gordon's suspensions - so I'll use them as my example.
First - how to find the Sitecore publishing restrictions:
From the publish tab --> click Change (Restrictions)
 This will show the following window:

Options to restrict:
  • Ray Rice/Adrian Peterson option: Uncheck the “publishable” option – this can be used for when there is no timetable for the release – (think Adrian Peterson/Ray Rice – suspended indefinitely)
  • Josh Gordon option: Set a “Publishable From” date – this should be used for when there is a definite release timetable – (think Josh Gordon – suspended until Week 12) 
  • Brett Favre option: Set a "Publishable To" date - this should be used for when there is a definite unpublish timetable - (think Brett Favre - retired after 2010 season)
Keep in mind the following:
  • Ray Rice/Adrian Peterson Option will require someone to manually recheck the publishable box before the content goes live. Think of it like Roger Goddell reinstating a player to his team.
  • Josh Gordon Option will automatically become publishable on a given date. It may require someone to trigger the publishing job depending on whether your Sitecore instance is configured to run a Publishing Agent or not.
  • Brett Favre option will not restrict it from going live but instead removes the content on a particular date. This does require a manual publish of the parent item in order to remove it from the web database (or write a new Agent to handle it).

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