Live updates every second make displaying each individual tweet almost useless. It's damn near impossible to read as it constantly updates and moves the tweet of focus.
Either 1) follow Twitter's example and display a link at the top (including count) to load new tweets or 2) pick some other visualization mechanism to capture the deluge of data.
It's actually using WebSockets, so the tweets are being pushed, not polled. The pause button isn't the best interface, but the idea is to show the ridiculous number of tweets coming out of Madison.
Rather than saying something nasty about how public sector union benefits are bankrupting so many states and unions across this country, I'm just going to flag this and hope that the discussion moves to more appropriate venues.
Rather than replying that Wisconsin had a projected budget surplus until Governor Walker spent ~$140 million in January, I'll just point out that backhanded comments like this one are kind of annoying, and hope that you remember for next time.
I specifically asked my devs to keep a completely neutral point of view. There is some novelty that puts it on hacker news: it shows how a tech like WebSockets can shed light on the enormity of an event.
This app is certainly not the first of its kind, but it's interesting to see a more localized example of social media uniting people in protest. When the protests in Iran were happening I don't think I was convinced of Twitter's effect on fueling social movements. When they happened in Egypt I began to come around. When it started happening outside of my window it became difficult to ignore.
There's no question in my mind that one of the driving forces behind this protest is social media, and in particular, Twitter.
Either 1) follow Twitter's example and display a link at the top (including count) to load new tweets or 2) pick some other visualization mechanism to capture the deluge of data.