Tweet Feels: Always returns the same Sentiment Score, regardless tags

Question

I am trying to use this library to generate sentiment score for cryptocurrencies:

https://github.com/uclatommy/tweetfeels/blob/master/README.md

When I use the code from the example trump, it returns a sentiment score of -0.00082536637608123106.

I have changed the tags to the following:

btc_feels = TweetFeels(login, tracking=['bitcoin'])
btc_feels.start(20)
btc_feels.sentiment.value

and it still gives me the same value.

I did notice something strange when I installed the library.

from the instructions:

If for some reason pip did not install the vader lexicon:

python3 -m nltk.downloader vader_lexicon

When I ran this, I got:

/anaconda/lib/python3.6/runpy.py:125: RuntimeWarning: 'nltk.downloader' found in sys.modules after import of package 'nltk', but prior to execution of 'nltk.downloader'; this may result in unpredictable behaviour warn(RuntimeWarning(msg))

Could this be why it appears not to be working?

Answer 1

By default, tweetfeels creates a database in your current directory. The next time you start the program, it will continue using the same database, and pick up where it left off. I don't know what tweetfeels does to handle you changing the keyword on it, but this behaviour of tweetfeels could be a problem. The solution would be to use a different database for different keywords, and then pass in the location of your database to the TweetFeels constructor.

I don't know that much about Tweetfeels, it just sounded interesting, so I've downloaded the project, and I have a working script that will perform the sentiment analysis on any keyword I give it. I can add a copy of the script here, if you're still having problems getting TweetFeels to work.

Edit: here the script I am using

I am currently having the following problems with the script.

1) I was getting some error that was different from the one you'd got, but I was able to fix the issue by replacing the tweetfeels library from pip with the latest code in their Github repository.

2) If a sentiment value does not get reported, sometimes tweetfeels fails to come to a complete stop, without forcefully sending a ctrl+c keyboard interrupt.

import os, sys, time
from threading import Thread
from pathlib import Path

from tweetfeels import TweetFeels

consumer_key = 'em...'
consumer_secret = 'aF...'
access_token = '25...'
access_token_secret = 'd3...'
login = [consumer_key, consumer_secret, access_token, access_token_secret]

try:
    kw = sys.argv[1]
except IndexError:
    kw = "iota"

try:
    secs = int(sys.argv[2])
except IndexError:
    secs = 15

for arg in sys.argv:
    if (arg == "-h" or arg == "--help"):
        print("Gets sentiment from twitter.\n"
              "Pass in a search term, and how frequently you would like the sentiment recalculated (defaults to 15 seconds).\n"
              "The keyword can be a comma seperated list of keywords to look at.")
        sys.exit(0)

db = Path(f"~/tweetfeels/{kw}.sqlite").expanduser()
if db.exists():
    print("existing db detected. Continueing from where the last sentiment stream left off")
else:
    #ensure the parent folder exists, the db will be created inside of this folder
    Path(f"~/tweetfeels").expanduser().mkdir(exist_ok=True)

feels = TweetFeels(login, tracking=kw.split(","), db=str(db))

go_on = True
def print_feels(feels, seconds):
    while go_on:
        if feels.sentiment:
            print(f"{feels.sentiment.volume} tweets analyzed from {feels.sentiment.start} to {feels.sentiment.end}")
            print(f'[{time.ctime()}] Sentiment Score: {feels.sentiment.value}')
            print(flush=True)
        else:
            print(f"The datastream has not reported a sentiment value.")
            print(f"It takes a little bit for the first tweets to be analyzed (max of {feels._stream.retry_time_cap + seconds} seconds).")
            print("If this problem persists, there may not be anyone tweeting about the keyword(s) you used")
            print(flush=True)
        time.sleep(seconds)


t = Thread(target=print_feels, kwargs={"feels":feels,"seconds":secs}, daemon=True)
print(f'Twitter posts containing the keyword(s) "{kw}" will be streamed, and a new sentiment value will be recalculated every {secs} seconds')
feels.start()
time.sleep(5)
t.start()

try:
    input("Push enter at any time to stop the feed...\n\n")
except (Exception, KeyboardInterrupt) as e:
    feels.stop()
    raise e

feels.stop()
go_on = False
print(f"Stopping feed. It may take up to {feels._stream.retry_time_cap} for the feed to shut down.\n")
#we're waiting on the feels thread to stop