I have seen a few mentions of this idiom (including on SO):
// Deliberately empty subscriber
public event EventHandler AskQuestion = delegate {};
The upside is clear - it avoids the need to check for null before raising the event.
However, I am keen to understand if there are any downsides. For example, is it something that is in widespread use and is transparent enough that it won't cause a maintenance headache? Is there any appreciable performance hit of the empty event subscriber call?