Why do it if one person exists?
In my opinion most "comfort" features that will put stress on the site, even for those not implementing the feature, should have to pass this test:
Does site admin see *ANY* merit?
No - end of story
Yes - then:
Does site staff see enough merit to implement (a sort of vote - a period of time, say one real week, for any staff member to vote yea or nay; offer counter proposals, tweaks/mods, etc.)
No - end of story
Yes - then:
Site wide (MotD) poll explaining pros & cons of feature.
Of course I realize this will take longer, but I really do not like the idea of the site running slower because one person wants a "countdown clock" that runs on all pages and makes the site run slower.
HOWEVER, one possible upside - the countdown clock could also be used in different ways:
You have 30 seconds (or one minute) to answer the riddle - could cut down on Google lookups.
