Unlike with a traffic jam, bothering has a very small cost, especially as compared to the cost of reading "X is down" on the HN front page.
Or alternatively, all the time you pre-emtively are checking all over the place at T-1 for using it at T. Depending upon the resolution of this, that can be a PITA and a waste of time. Far more than you skipping over 1/30 of a page on the internet.
Alternatively, there may be some better way to do it. There could be a list/screen for relevance to the community or a seperate page or whatever. But one needs to address or dimensionalize the tension between information flow and efficiency a bit more than your first formulation.