37 votes

So, NPR fixed their RSS ... it seems to work globally again

Posted by Eric_the_Cerise
Tags: ask.discussion, usa, media, journalism, news, rss, npr

This is really just a follow-up update to my old post, Did NPR just shut down support for RSS?, but that post is a week old and I wanted to make sure this update gets eyes on it.

I heard back from NPR this morning, and they indicated that this was not a policy decision, but an issue that they have now fixed. NPR RSS links once again work outside of the US/Canada.

Passingly curious how this kind of thing happens accidentally ... any informed guesses? My best guess is that they intentionally geoblocked something else, and it accidentally got extended to the RSS.

5 comments

  1. [5]
    DeaconBlue
    Link
    Your best guess is likely correct. The controller for the RSS feed likely was intertwined with some other controller that was geoblocked, or the services were behind the same "Front Door" style...

    Your best guess is likely correct. The controller for the RSS feed likely was intertwined with some other controller that was geoblocked, or the services were behind the same "Front Door" style handler, and the requests started getting blocked in the same way.

    On a related note, I really wish geoblocking (and most things, actually) responded with the correct error codes. Almost everything returns a 404 Not Found when it should be like 403 for a permissions issue or 451 (lol get it?) when the content is blocked by local laws or geoblocked.

    17 votes
    1. [4]
      goose
      Link Parent
      I didn't, off the rip, but reading into it, it's humorously appropriate. For the fellow uninitiated: I have nginx configured to return 444; on my geoblocks, but perhaps I'll change it to 451, just...

      or 451 (lol get it?)

      I didn't, off the rip, but reading into it, it's humorously appropriate. For the fellow uninitiated:

      HTTP 451 is a client error status code that means the requested resource is unavailable for legal reasons, such as government censorship or copyright restrictions. The code is a reference to the dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451, which depicts a future where books are outlawed. Unlike other error codes, it indicates a legal, rather than technical, issue preventing access.

      I have nginx configured to return 444; on my geoblocks, but perhaps I'll change it to 451, just to stick it to the Chinese crawlers trying to index my /robots.txt

      4 votes
      1. [3]
        DeaconBlue
        Link Parent
        You may also want to consider 418 if you are looking to be silly to crawlers.

        You may also want to consider 418 if you are looking to be silly to crawlers.

        1 vote
        1. [2]
          goose
          Link Parent
          🫖 The greatest April Fools joke to ever be immortalized in the RFC* * in my opinion

          🫖

          The greatest April Fools joke to ever be immortalized in the RFC*

          * in my opinion

          2 votes