diff --git a/app/models/agents/twitter_user_agent.rb b/app/models/agents/twitter_user_agent.rb
index 79f87326dc..520cefe339 100644
--- a/app/models/agents/twitter_user_agent.rb
+++ b/app/models/agents/twitter_user_agent.rb
@@ -17,11 +17,15 @@ class TwitterUserAgent < Agent
 
       You must also provide the `username` of the Twitter user to monitor.
 
+      Set `include_retweets` to `false` to not include retweets (default: `true`)
+
       Set `expected_update_period_in_days` to the maximum amount of time that you'd expect to pass between Events being created by this Agent.
+
+      Set `starting_at` to the date/time (eg. `Mon Jun 02 00:38:12 +0000 2014`) you want to start receiving tweets from (default: agent's `created_at`)
     MD
 
     event_description <<-MD
-      Events are the raw JSON provided by the Twitter API. Should look something like:
+      Events are the raw JSON provided by the [Twitter API](https://dev.twitter.com/docs/api/1.1/get/statuses/user_timeline). Should look something like:
 
           {
              ... every Tweet field, including ...
@@ -46,38 +50,60 @@ class TwitterUserAgent < Agent
 
     default_schedule "every_1h"
 
-    def validate_options
-      unless options['username'].present? &&
-        options['expected_update_period_in_days'].present?
-        errors.add(:base, "username and expected_update_period_in_days are required")
-      end      
-    end
-
     def working?
       event_created_within?(options['expected_update_period_in_days']) && !recent_error_logs?
     end
 
     def default_options
       {
-        'username' => "tectonic",
-        'expected_update_period_in_days' => "2"
+        'username' => 'tectonic',
+        'include_retweets' => 'true',
+        'expected_update_period_in_days' => '2'
       }
     end
 
+    def validate_options
+      errors.add(:base, "username is required") unless options['username'].present?
+      errors.add(:base, "expected_update_period_in_days is required") unless options['expected_update_period_in_days'].present?
+
+      if options[:include_retweets].present? && !%w[true false].include?(options[:include_retweets])
+        errors.add(:base, "include_retweets must be a boolean value string (true/false)")
+      end
+
+      if options[:starting_at].present?
+        Time.parse(options[:starting_at]) rescue errors.add(:base, "Error parsing starting_at")
+      end
+    end
+
+    def starting_at
+      if options[:starting_at].present?
+        Time.parse(options[:starting_at]) rescue created_at
+      else
+        created_at
+      end
+    end
+
+    def include_retweets?
+      options[:include_retweets] != "false"
+    end
+
     def check
       since_id = memory['since_id'] || nil
-      opts = {:count => 200, :include_rts => true, :exclude_replies => false, :include_entities => true, :contributor_details => true}
+      opts = {:count => 200, :include_rts => include_retweets?, :exclude_replies => false, :include_entities => true, :contributor_details => true}
       opts.merge! :since_id => since_id unless since_id.nil?
 
+      # http://rdoc.info/gems/twitter/Twitter/REST/Timelines#user_timeline-instance_method
       tweets = twitter.user_timeline(options['username'], opts)
 
       tweets.each do |tweet|
-        memory['since_id'] = tweet.id if !memory['since_id'] || (tweet.id > memory['since_id'])
+        if tweet.created_at >= starting_at
+          memory['since_id'] = tweet.id if !memory['since_id'] || (tweet.id > memory['since_id'])
 
-        create_event :payload => tweet.attrs
+          create_event :payload => tweet.attrs
+        end
       end
 
       save!
     end
   end
-end
\ No newline at end of file
+end
diff --git a/spec/models/agents/twitter_user_agent_spec.rb b/spec/models/agents/twitter_user_agent_spec.rb
index 8739e8535f..dba9c7ba29 100644
--- a/spec/models/agents/twitter_user_agent_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/agents/twitter_user_agent_spec.rb
@@ -4,10 +4,11 @@
   before do
     # intercept the twitter API request for @tectonic's user profile
     stub_request(:any, /tectonic/).to_return(:body => File.read(Rails.root.join("spec/data_fixtures/user_tweets.json")), :status => 200)
-  
+
     @opts = {
       :username => "tectonic",
       :expected_update_period_in_days => "2",
+      :starting_at => "Jan 01 00:00:01 +0000 2000",
       :consumer_key => "---",
       :consumer_secret => "---",
       :oauth_token => "---",
@@ -25,4 +26,16 @@
     end
   end
 
-end
\ No newline at end of file
+  describe "#check with starting_at=future date" do
+    it "should check for changes starting_at a future date, thus not find any" do
+      opts = @opts.merge({ :starting_at => "Jan 01 00:00:01 +0000 2999", })
+
+      checker = Agents::TwitterUserAgent.new(:name => "tectonic", :options => opts)
+      checker.user = users(:bob)
+      checker.save!
+
+      lambda { checker.check }.should change { Event.count }.by(0)
+    end
+  end
+
+end