iBBC NEWS... WITHOUT THE CRAP	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
i2024-03-09	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iDid I mention recently that I love RSS? That it brings me great joy? That I	null	(FALSE)	0
istart and finish almost every day in my feed reader? Probably.	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iI used to have a single minor niggle with the BBC News RSS feed: that it	null	(FALSE)	0
iincluded sports news, which I didn't care about. So I wrote a script that	null	(FALSE)	0
idownloaded it, stripped sports news, and re-exported the feed for me to	null	(FALSE)	0
isubscribe to. Magic.	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
IRSS reader showing duplicate copies of the news story "Barbie 2? 'We'd love to,' says Warner Bros boss", and an entry from BBC Sounds.	/2024/03/bbc-news-rss-annoyances.png	danq.me	70
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iBut lately - presumably as a result of technical changes at the Beeb's side -	null	(FALSE)	0
ithis feed has found two fresh ways to annoy me:	null	(FALSE)	0
i* The feed now re-publishes a story if it gets re-promoted to the front	null	(FALSE)	0
ipage... but with a different <guid> (it appears to get a #0 after it when	null	(FALSE)	0
ifirst published, a #1 the second time, and so on). In a typical day the feed	null	(FALSE)	0
ireader might scoop up new stories about once an hour, any by the time I get to	null	(FALSE)	0
ireading them the same exact story might appear in my reader multiple times.	null	(FALSE)	0
iUgh.	null	(FALSE)	0
i* They've started adding iPlayer and BBC Sounds content to the BBC News feed.	null	(FALSE)	0
iI don't follow BBC News in my feed reader because I want to watch or listen to	null	(FALSE)	0
ithings. If you do, that's fine, but I don't, and I'd rather filter this	null	(FALSE)	0
icontent out.	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iLuckily, I already have a recipe for improving this feed, thanks to my prior	null	(FALSE)	0
iwork. Let's look at my newly-revised script (also available on GitHub):	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
i#!/usr/bin/env ruby	null	(FALSE)	0
irequire 'bundler/inline'	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
i# SAMPLE CRONTAB:	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
i# AT 41 MINUTES PAST EACH HOUR, RUN THE SCRIPT AND LOG THE RESULTS	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
i*/20 * * * * ~/BBC-NEWS-RSS-FILTER-SPORT-OUT.RB >	null	(FALSE)	0
i~/BBC-NEWS-RSS-FILTER-SPORT-OUT.LOG 2>>&1	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iDEPENDENCIES:	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
i* OPEN-URI - LOAD REMOTE URL CONTENT EASILY	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
i* NOKOGIRI - PARSE/FILTER XML	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
igemfile do	null	(FALSE)	0
i  source 'https://rubygems.org'	null	(FALSE)	0
i  gem 'nokogiri'	null	(FALSE)	0
iend	null	(FALSE)	0
irequire 'open-uri'	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iREGULAR EXPRESSION DESCRIBING THE GUIDS TO REJECT FROM THE RESULTING RSS FEED	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iWE WANT TO DROP EVERYTHING FROM THE "SPORT" SECTION OF THE WEBSITE, ALSO ANY	null	(FALSE)	0
iIPLAYER/SOUNDS LINKS	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iREJECT_GUIDS_MATCHING = /^https:\/\/www\.bbc\.co\.uk\/(sport|iplayer|sounds)\//	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iLOAD AND FILTER THE ORIGINAL RSS	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
irss = Nokogiri::XML(open('https://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml?edition=uk'))	null	(FALSE)	0
irss.css('item').select{|item| item.css('guid').text =~ REJECT_GUIDS_MATCHING	null	(FALSE)	0
i}.each(&:unlink)	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iSTRIP THE ANCHORS OFF THE S: BBC NEWS "REPUBLISHES" STORIES BY USING GUIDS	null	(FALSE)	0
iWITH #0, #1, #2 ETC, WHICH RESULTS IN DUPLICATES IN FEED READERS	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
irss.css('guid').each{|g|g.content=g.content.gsub(/#.*$/,'')}	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iFile.open( '/www/bbc-news-no-sport.xml', 'w' ){ |f| f.puts(rss.to_s) }	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iIt's amazing what you can do with Nokogiri and a half dozen lines of Ruby.	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iThat revised script removes from the feed anything whose <guid> suggests it's	null	(FALSE)	0
isports news or from BBC Sounds or iPlayer, and also strips any "anchor" part	null	(FALSE)	0
iof the <guid> before re-exporting the feed. Much better. (Strictly speaking,	null	(FALSE)	0
ithis can result in a technically-invalid feed by introducing duplicates, but	null	(FALSE)	0
iyour feed reader oughta be smart enough to compensate for and ignore that:	null	(FALSE)	0
imine certainly is!)	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iYou're free to take and adapt the script to your own needs, or - if you don't	null	(FALSE)	0
imind being tied to my opinions about what should be in BBC News' RSS feed -	null	(FALSE)	0
ijust subscribe to my copy at: https://fox.q-t-a.uk/bbc-news-no-sport.xml	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
iLINKS	null	(FALSE)	0
i	null	(FALSE)	0
1My very recent blog post about how RSS is better than ActivityPub.	/posts/rss-is-better-than-activitypub	danq.me	70
1My blog post about using RSS for joy, and not persuing "RSS Zero".	/posts/rss-zero	danq.me	70
hMy 2021 blog note about starting and ending my days in FreshRSS.	URL:https://danq.me/2021/09/29/freshrss-addiction/	(FALSE)	0
hMy blog post about scripting-out sport from BBC News' RSS feed.	URL:https://danq.me/2019/05/14/bbc-news-without-the-sport/	(FALSE)	0
hMy Ruby script for filtering out the kinds of BBC News content I don't want to see right out of their RSS feed.	URL:https://gist.github.com/Dan-Q/65bb0a9470236520cbe255ff44924ce3	(FALSE)	0
hFreshRSS: my favourite RSS reader	URL:https://freshrss.org/	(FALSE)	0
hHttps://fox.q-t-a.uk/bbc-news-no-sport.xml	URL:https://fox.q-t-a.uk/bbc-news-no-sport.xml	(FALSE)	0
.