diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index eb074f5..bbd764b 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ npx slack-archive
 --automatic:                Don't prompt and automatically fetch all messages from all channels.
 --channel-types             Comma-separated list of channel types to fetch messages from.
                             (public_channel, private_channel, mpim, im)
+--exclude-channels          Comma-separated list of channels to exclude, in automatic mode
 --no-backup:                Don't create backups. Not recommended.
 --no-search:                Don't create a search file, saving disk space.
 --no-file-download:         Don't download files.
@@ -107,4 +108,4 @@ your values.
 https://{your-team-name}.slack.com/api/oauth.access?client_id={your-client-id}&client_secret={your-client-secret}&code={your-code}"
 ```
 
-Your browser should now be returning some JSON including a token. Make a note of it - that's what we'll use.
+Your browser should now be returning some JSON including a token. Make a note of it - that's what we'll use. Paste it in the command line, OR create a file called `.TOKEN` in the slack-archive directory (created when the command is first run) and paste it in there.
diff --git a/src/cli.ts b/src/cli.ts
index 9967cd8..244fc0c 100644
--- a/src/cli.ts
+++ b/src/cli.ts
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import {
   DATE_FILE,
   EMOJIS_DATA_PATH,
   NO_SLACK_CONNECT,
+  EXCLUDE_CHANNELS,
 } from "./config.js";
 import { downloadExtras } from "./messages.js";
 import { downloadMessages } from "./messages.js";
@@ -75,6 +76,10 @@ async function selectChannels(
   }));
 
   if (AUTOMATIC_MODE || NO_SLACK_CONNECT) {
+    if (EXCLUDE_CHANNELS) {
+      const excludeChannels = EXCLUDE_CHANNELS.split(',');
+      return channels.filter((channel) => !excludeChannels.includes(channel.name || ''));
+    }
     return channels;
   }
 
diff --git a/src/config.ts b/src/config.ts
index c59a011..3107087 100644
--- a/src/config.ts
+++ b/src/config.ts
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ export const NO_SLACK_CONNECT = findCliParameter("--no-slack-connect");
 export const FORCE_HTML_GENERATION = findCliParameter(
   "--force-html-generation"
 );
+export const EXCLUDE_CHANNELS = getCliParameter("--exclude-channels");
 export const BASE_DIR = process.cwd();
 export const OUT_DIR = path.join(BASE_DIR, "slack-archive");
 export const TOKEN_FILE = path.join(OUT_DIR, ".token");
diff --git a/src/users.ts b/src/users.ts
index be58a46..eaf8fef 100644
--- a/src/users.ts
+++ b/src/users.ts
@@ -24,11 +24,11 @@ export async function downloadUser(
     return users[item.user];
 
   const spinner = ora(`Downloading info for user ${item.user}...`).start();
-  const user = (
-    await getWebClient().users.info({
-      user: item.user,
-    })
-  ).user;
+  const user = (item.user === 'U00') ? {} as User : (
+      await getWebClient().users.info({
+        user: item.user,
+      })
+    ).user;
 
   if (user) {
     usersRefetchedThisRun.push(item.user);