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Show HN: Beautiful Real-Time Polling On Twitter With Analytics

65 points by BenSchaechter 15y ago

mrpollo 15y ago
do i really need to choose my political view?
drivebyacct2 15y ago
I prefer the cleanliness and simplicity of Google's Spreadsheet functionality that enables polling, as well as the free real-time results, graphing options, API, etc.
ecto 15y ago
How's your node server holding up? How much memory does this kind of traffic consume in a real-world scenario?
- BenSchaechter 15y ago
  Node is holding up just fine. About 600KB of memory. It is a beast. It is our first go with it and it was great!
  - aashay 15y ago
    Is this using Socket.IO by any chance?
    - BenSchaechter 15y ago
      Yup, we're using Socket.IO.
norova 15y ago
Please don't force me to choose a political view. Just the fact that this field is not optional made me decide not to use the site at all.
- BenSchaechter 15y ago
  I was surprised that so many people were thrown off by this. We want to do more cool visualizations in the future with this sort of data. We'll make a decline to disclose at one point. Sorry about that.
  - norova 15y ago
    It's not the fact that I care that people know which political party I choose to affiliate myself with, it's the fact that there is no apparent way to not choose. I'm not a Republican or a Democrat, don't force me to choose. A "decline" or "other" choice would solve this nicely.
    - BenSchaechter 15y ago
      Fair enough. I apologize -- we didn't think about this enough and will change it this weekend. Thanks for the feedback.
      - jdp23 15y ago
        i'd suggest both an "other" and "decline to state" choice. or go crazy and include Libertarian, Tea Party, Green, and Working Families Party as well!
- bdclimber14 15y ago
  I also decided not to register based on this requirement alone. It's not that I mind sharing my political view, or am perturbed that you asked. I simply do not identify with either party and was frustrated that I would be forced to classify my world view into a completely inappropriate selection. If you had listed libertarian, I would have selected that and not thought twice. Of course, there are plenty more political views beyond those 3.
spooneybarger 15y ago
the 'someone just joined this page. boom!' is so annoying and distracting. if that were to stay, i wouldn't ever use the site. what it says to me is, 'we are more interested in eye candy then real features'. why? because you are constantly trying to distract me from the actual content. the 'take another poll' button constantly gets covered by the noise. the techie side feels the need to tell you that i had to get my cursor in just the right place ( using latest google chrome ) to even make the next poll button work, that is when an annoying 'someone just voted' message would let me. i tried. took me 2 minutes to manage to click it.
- BenSchaechter 15y ago
  Great feedback. We just launched this today and honestly didn't expect it to be #1 on HackerNews. We're going to start grouping the messages together and less often so they aren't as distracting like: "Bensign, Bob, Joe & 17 others just joined the page". Our team will be rolling out fixes very soon.
mnutt 15y ago
When I choose a poll option I immediately get taken to a page with just an ad on it. Perhaps one of your advertiser's use of document.write is to blame?
- BenSchaechter 15y ago
  Hm, this is a problem. We'll take a look at it. Thanks for the heads up.
sinned 15y ago
Realtime is so IN right now.
noahlt 15y ago
What does this have to do with Twitter?
- BenSchaechter 15y ago
  Our goal was to make something where you can ask quick questions on Twitter and get quantitative responses back instead of sifting through @replies. We want to have accounts with lots of followers start using our polls to quickly and easily get feedback from their followers and then be able to segment the votes accordingly. Think of if CNN could ask a question about a current topic and instantly get feedback. Much better than thousands of @replies.
steipete 15y ago
only us map? come on!
- BenSchaechter 15y ago
  We'll be adding support internationally soon.
jrockway 15y ago
I'm really tired of subjective words like "beautiful" in the title. What makes this particularly beautiful? It's a fake wood-grain background with a few buttons and randomly-indented gravitars. Let's try and stay away from ad copy for showing off our projects on HN. "I made this" is enough reason to click the link.
- bmelton 15y ago
  In this particular case, while I happen to be biased and agree that it's beautiful, I think that it's added as a differentiator between something else. If I'm looking for a lightweight Javascript framework for mobile platforms, then I really hope to see descriptors like 'small' and 'fast' in their descriptions. In this case, I'd suggest that aesthetics are a feature, and certainly appropriate for the post.
strmpnk 15y ago
I have to say I didn't enjoy it. The pops on the side are pointless and annoying and the ad placement on the side just helps show how poor the flow of the page is setup. The next arrow on the side feels like it was just tacked on like a sticker on some random stall. Comments themselves have some weird padding between the headshot and the text etc... Maybe some people like it but it's not how I would have done it.

65 points by BenSchaechter 15y ago

do i really need to choose my political view?

I prefer the cleanliness and simplicity of Google's Spreadsheet functionality that enables polling, as well as the free real-time results, graphing options, API, etc.

ecto 15y ago

How's your node server holding up? How much memory does this kind of traffic consume in a real-world scenario?

BenSchaechter 15y ago
Node is holding up just fine. About 600KB of memory. It is a beast. It is our first go with it and it was great!
- aashay 15y ago
  Is this using Socket.IO by any chance?
  - BenSchaechter 15y ago
    Yup, we're using Socket.IO.

norova 15y ago

Please don't force me to choose a political view. Just the fact that this field is not optional made me decide not to use the site at all.

BenSchaechter 15y ago
I was surprised that so many people were thrown off by this. We want to do more cool visualizations in the future with this sort of data. We'll make a decline to disclose at one point. Sorry about that.
- norova 15y ago
  It's not the fact that I care that people know which political party I choose to affiliate myself with, it's the fact that there is no apparent way to not choose. I'm not a Republican or a Democrat, don't force me to choose. A "decline" or "other" choice would solve this nicely.
  - BenSchaechter 15y ago
    Fair enough. I apologize -- we didn't think about this enough and will change it this weekend. Thanks for the feedback.
    - jdp23 15y ago
      i'd suggest both an "other" and "decline to state" choice. or go crazy and include Libertarian, Tea Party, Green, and Working Families Party as well!
bdclimber14 15y ago
I also decided not to register based on this requirement alone. It's not that I mind sharing my political view, or am perturbed that you asked. I simply do not identify with either party and was frustrated that I would be forced to classify my world view into a completely inappropriate selection. If you had listed libertarian, I would have selected that and not thought twice. Of course, there are plenty more political views beyond those 3.

spooneybarger 15y ago

the 'someone just joined this page. boom!' is so annoying and distracting. if that were to stay, i wouldn't ever use the site. what it says to me is, 'we are more interested in eye candy then real features'. why? because you are constantly trying to distract me from the actual content. the 'take another poll' button constantly gets covered by the noise. the techie side feels the need to tell you that i had to get my cursor in just the right place ( using latest google chrome ) to even make the next poll button work, that is when an annoying 'someone just voted' message would let me. i tried. took me 2 minutes to manage to click it.

BenSchaechter 15y ago
Great feedback. We just launched this today and honestly didn't expect it to be #1 on HackerNews. We're going to start grouping the messages together and less often so they aren't as distracting like: "Bensign, Bob, Joe & 17 others just joined the page". Our team will be rolling out fixes very soon.

mnutt 15y ago

When I choose a poll option I immediately get taken to a page with just an ad on it. Perhaps one of your advertiser's use of document.write is to blame?

BenSchaechter 15y ago
Hm, this is a problem. We'll take a look at it. Thanks for the heads up.

sinned 15y ago

Realtime is so IN right now.

noahlt 15y ago

What does this have to do with Twitter?

BenSchaechter 15y ago
Our goal was to make something where you can ask quick questions on Twitter and get quantitative responses back instead of sifting through @replies. We want to have accounts with lots of followers start using our polls to quickly and easily get feedback from their followers and then be able to segment the votes accordingly. Think of if CNN could ask a question about a current topic and instantly get feedback. Much better than thousands of @replies.

steipete 15y ago

only us map? come on!

BenSchaechter 15y ago
We'll be adding support internationally soon.

jrockway 15y ago

I'm really tired of subjective words like "beautiful" in the title. What makes this particularly beautiful? It's a fake wood-grain background with a few buttons and randomly-indented gravitars. Let's try and stay away from ad copy for showing off our projects on HN. "I made this" is enough reason to click the link.

bmelton 15y ago
In this particular case, while I happen to be biased and agree that it's beautiful, I think that it's added as a differentiator between something else. If I'm looking for a lightweight Javascript framework for mobile platforms, then I really hope to see descriptors like 'small' and 'fast' in their descriptions. In this case, I'd suggest that aesthetics are a feature, and certainly appropriate for the post.

strmpnk 15y ago

I have to say I didn't enjoy it. The pops on the side are pointless and annoying and the ad placement on the side just helps show how poor the flow of the page is setup. The next arrow on the side feels like it was just tacked on like a sticker on some random stall. Comments themselves have some weird padding between the headshot and the text etc... Maybe some people like it but it's not how I would have done it.