+8
Just to clarify, there are no official rules about who can start countdowns or when, and while I won't rule out creating such a rule, I'm only going to do it if things get really crazy. I think the countdowns work because they're grassroots-based and user-organized, and I want to interfere with that as little as possible. You guys have been awesome about all getting in line and coming to your own consensus about who runs these, and I'm not going to mess with that unless I absolutely have to.
It's certainly my personal opinion, though, that they work much better when they don't overlap (or, at most, that a smaller/more casual one only overlaps a little with a larger/more serious one). I think it's better to have people wanting more and looking forward to these than risk saturating the idea, but again, that's just an opinion. And it's not just a preference thing: it's really hard getting a large number of lists even with one running exclusively, so I think it might be especially hard if there are two going.
But, provided someone doesn't mind the prospect of a lower "turnout" and just wants to do something quick and fun, it's certainly up to them. And if someone else thinks that's too many, I'd ask you to just make up your own mind about whether to participate, but let them do their thing.