diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index afc499a..84016f9 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -5,3 +5,4 @@ README.html
 *.swp
 *~
 *.conf
+user_shortener.py
diff --git a/feed2twister.conf.example b/feed2twister.conf.example
index e391898..8a9fb2e 100644
--- a/feed2twister.conf.example
+++ b/feed2twister.conf.example
@@ -27,6 +27,9 @@ max_new_items_per_feed = 3
 # * Ur1.ca [Less tor-hostile] -- Dependencies:
 #   * https://github.com/legoktm/ur1
 #   * https://github.com/MiCHiLU/python-functools32
+# * user_shortener -- roll your own
+#   * write a user_shortener.py file with a shorten(long_url)
+#     that returns a short url. May the source be with you.
 use_shortener = False
 # tell is.gd to publicly show statistics for the shortened url
 shortener_stats = True
diff --git a/feed2twister.py b/feed2twister.py
index 4de1a61..59f8a5b 100755
--- a/feed2twister.py
+++ b/feed2twister.py
@@ -58,6 +58,8 @@ elif shortener in ['v', 'vgd', 'v.gd']:
 elif shortener in ['ur1', 'ur1.ca', 'ur1ca']:
     import ur1
     shorten = lambda url: ur1.shorten(url)
+elif shortener in ['user_shortener', 'user']:
+    from user_shortener import shorten  # User should create user_shortener.py
 elif shortener in ['false', 'no', 'n', '0']:
     shorten = lambda url: url
 else: