diff --git a/processor b/processor
index cdd1032..7594b7c 100755
--- a/processor
+++ b/processor
@@ -45,6 +45,12 @@ lasthash=
 
 # generate index
 while read hash commit ts id subject; do
+  # ignore commits that begin with ':'
+  [[ "$subject" == :* ]] && {
+    echo "[HTML] Ignoring $commit: $subject" >&2
+    continue
+  }
+
   echo "[HTML] Found $commit: $subject" >&2
 
   dateout="$( ./tsdate "$ts" %Y-%m-%d )"
diff --git a/rss b/rss
index c9483bf..821f7b1 100755
--- a/rss
+++ b/rss
@@ -39,6 +39,12 @@ EOH
 
 # output recent commits as entries (assuming no funny business in the output)
 while read hash commit ts id subject; do
+  # ignore commits that begin with ':'
+  [[ "$subject" == :* ]] && {
+    echo "[RSS] Ignoring $commit: $subject" >&2
+    continue
+  }
+
   echo "[RSS] Found $commit: $subject" >&2
 
   # TODO: avoid HTML entities where browsers may decide not to render them (e.g.