Good Idea, I've also seen this used when you get an Ooops Chrome Error because the website loads so slow.. it used like a 404 alternative where you can see updates even with the forum down.
The tripwire can also be automated to send a message to the Twitter account.
Would love to throw my support to this. It's also a lot easier to get notified when there's an update on Twitter. Would be amazing for things like this or after patches so I don't need to keep refreshing a forum page. Servers would be a lot less stressed.