diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index fecb6cd..18d6f43 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ This is a simple bot which fetches RSS feeds and posts them to an IRC channel.
 
 - python3
 - pip3
-- virtualenv (`pip3 install virtualenv`)
+- venv (`Available by default in Python 3.3+`)
 
 # Features
 
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ Help:
 Clone this repository and change into the directory. Create a new virtualenv and activate it:
 
 ```
-virtualenv -p python3 venv
+python3 -m venv venv
 source venv/bin/activate
 ```
 
diff --git a/bot.py b/bot.py
index 86956a3..5b59f1c 100644
--- a/bot.py
+++ b/bot.py
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@
 import sys
 import feedparser
 import datetime
-import dateutil.parser
 import requests
 from colour import Colours
 from db import FeedDB
@@ -203,10 +202,11 @@ def post_news(self, feed_name, title, url, date):
 
     def shorten(self, url):
         try: # Trying to shorten URL
-            sresponse = requests.get('https://v.gd/create.php?format=json&url=' + url)
-            surl = sresponse.json()['shorturl']
+            api = 'https://tinyurl.com/api-create.php?url='
+            sresponse = requests.get(api + url)
+            surl = sresponse.text
         except Exception as err:
-            print('A shortening error occurred.')
+            print('A shortening error occurred:', sresponse.status_code)
             surl = url
         return surl
 
diff --git a/config.py.sample b/config.py.sample
index 4b8cd4f..51b44c9 100644
--- a/config.py.sample
+++ b/config.py.sample
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env python2
-# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
-
 class Config(object):
     lastpubmsg = 0
+    
+    ### SETTINGS ###
 
     def __init__(self):
         self.HOST = 'irc.rizon.net'
@@ -32,6 +31,6 @@ class Config(object):
         self.postdelay = 180                        # Post delay during conversation in seconds. 0 for off.
         self.feedorderdesc = False
         self.update_before_connecting = True        # Update all feeds before connecting to the IRC server
-        self.filterkeywords = ()                    # Lower-case keywords list to filter in title news. Use
-                                                    # ('one','two','three') to activate or () for deactivate.
+        self.filterkeywords = []                    # Lower-case keywords list to filter in news title. Use
+                                                    # ['one','two','three'] to activate or [] for deactivate.
 
diff --git a/feedupdater.py b/feedupdater.py
index 79f32ad..0075fcf 100644
--- a/feedupdater.py
+++ b/feedupdater.py
@@ -50,7 +50,6 @@ def __fetch_feed(self, feed_info, callback, forever):
                 for newsitem in news.entries[::-1]:
                     newstitle = newsitem.title
                     newsurl = newsitem.link
-#                    print datetime.datetime.now(), newsurl
 
                     # Try to get the published or updated date. Otherwise set it to 'no date'
                     try: