class BenevolentStreamListener(tweepy.StreamListener):
    "Adheres Twitter's prescribed back-off strategy."
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super(BenevolentStreamListener, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        self._sleeptime = 10

    def on_error(self, status_code):
        print 'An error has occured! Status code = %s' % status_code
        # Back off
        time.sleep(self._sleeptime)
        if self._sleeptime < 120:
            self._sleeptime *= 2
        return True # keep stream alive

    def on_timeout(self):
        print 'Snoozing Zzzzzz'
        time.sleep(10)
        return True