diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index b2a3c65..64520fe 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ You can restrict access to certain functionality by prepending a secret string t
 
 For example, providing the `--admin-prefix=abc123` flag will register the index rebuild path as `/abc123/index/rebuild`.
 
-The affected paths are:
+The restricted paths are:
 - `/debug/pprof/`
 - `/debug/pprof/cmdline`
 - `/debug/pprof/profile`
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ You can combine these two parameters, with exclusions taking priority over inclu
 Both filtering parameters ignore the file extension and full path; they only compare against the bare filename.
 
 ## Ignoring directories
-Any directory containing a file named `.roulette_ignore` will be skipped during the scanning stage.
+If the `--ignore` flag is passed, any directory containing a file named `.roulette_ignore` (configurable with `--ignore-file`) will be skipped during the scanning stage.
 
 ## Indexing
 If the `-i|--indexing` flag is passed, all specified paths will be indexed on start.
@@ -65,6 +65,8 @@ The index can be regenerated at any time by accessing the `/index/rebuild` endpo
 
 If `--index-file` is set, the index will be loaded from the specified file on start, and written to the file whenever it is re-generated.
 
+The index file consists of [zstd](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/klauspost/compress/zstd)-compressed [gobs](https://pkg.go.dev/encoding/gob).
+
 ## Info
 If the `-i|--info` flag is passed, six additional endpoints are registered.
 
@@ -150,7 +152,8 @@ Flags:
       --fun                   add a bit of excitement to your day
       --handlers              display registered handlers (for debugging)
   -h, --help                  help for roulette
-      --ignore                skip all directories containing a file named .roulette_ignore
+      --ignore                skip all directories containing a specified filename
+      --ignore-file string    filename used to indicate directory to be skipped (default ".roulette-ignore")
       --images                enable support for image files
       --index                 generate index of supported file paths at startup
       --index-file string     path to optional persistent index file
diff --git a/cmd/errors.go b/cmd/errors.go
index c6502b2..00e20b8 100644
--- a/cmd/errors.go
+++ b/cmd/errors.go
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ var (
 	ErrInvalidConcurrency    = errors.New("concurrency limit must be between 1 and 8192 inclusive")
 	ErrInvalidFileCountRange = errors.New("maximum file count limit must be greater than or equal to minimum file count limit")
 	ErrInvalidFileCountValue = errors.New("file count limits must be non-negative integers no greater than 2147483647")
+	ErrInvalidIgnoreFile     = errors.New("ignore filename must match the pattern " + ignoreFilePattern)
 	ErrInvalidPort           = errors.New("listen port must be an integer between 1 and 65535 inclusive")
 	ErrNoMediaFound          = errors.New("no supported media formats found which match all criteria")
 )
diff --git a/cmd/files.go b/cmd/files.go
index eed8c14..455cb17 100644
--- a/cmd/files.go
+++ b/cmd/files.go
@@ -22,9 +22,7 @@ import (
 	"seedno.de/seednode/roulette/types"
 )
 
-const (
-	ignoreFileName string = `.roulette_ignore`
-)
+const ignoreFilePattern string = `^[A-z0-9.]+$`
 
 type regexes struct {
 	alphanumeric *regexp.Regexp
@@ -249,7 +247,7 @@ func walkPath(path string, fileChannel chan<- string, stats *scanStatsChannels,
 		if node.IsDir() {
 			directories++
 		} else {
-			if Ignore && node.Name() == ignoreFileName {
+			if Ignore && node.Name() == IgnoreFile {
 				skipDir = true
 			}
 
diff --git a/cmd/root.go b/cmd/root.go
index 81d42af..97baa8a 100644
--- a/cmd/root.go
+++ b/cmd/root.go
@@ -7,13 +7,14 @@ package cmd
 import (
 	"log"
 	"math"
+	"regexp"
 	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
 )
 
 const (
-	ReleaseVersion string = "3.4.3"
+	ReleaseVersion string = "3.5.0"
 )
 
 var (
@@ -33,6 +34,7 @@ var (
 	Fun            bool
 	Handlers       bool
 	Ignore         bool
+	IgnoreFile     string
 	Images         bool
 	Index          bool
 	IndexFile      string
@@ -77,6 +79,8 @@ var (
 				return ErrInvalidPort
 			case Concurrency < 1 || Concurrency > 8192:
 				return ErrInvalidConcurrency
+			case Ignore && !regexp.MustCompile(ignoreFilePattern).MatchString(IgnoreFile):
+				return ErrInvalidIgnoreFile
 			case strings.Contains(AdminPrefix, "/"):
 				return ErrInvalidAdminPrefix
 			case AdminPrefix != "":
@@ -119,7 +123,8 @@ func init() {
 	rootCmd.Flags().BoolVar(&Flash, "flash", false, "enable support for shockwave flash files (via ruffle.rs)")
 	rootCmd.Flags().BoolVar(&Fun, "fun", false, "add a bit of excitement to your day")
 	rootCmd.Flags().BoolVar(&Handlers, "handlers", false, "display registered handlers (for debugging)")
-	rootCmd.Flags().BoolVar(&Ignore, "ignore", false, "skip all directories containing a file named .roulette_ignore")
+	rootCmd.Flags().BoolVar(&Ignore, "ignore", false, "skip all directories containing a specified filename")
+	rootCmd.Flags().StringVar(&IgnoreFile, "ignore-file", ".roulette-ignore", "filename used to indicate directory to be skipped")
 	rootCmd.Flags().BoolVar(&Images, "images", false, "enable support for image files")
 	rootCmd.Flags().BoolVar(&Index, "index", false, "generate index of supported file paths at startup")
 	rootCmd.Flags().StringVar(&IndexFile, "index-file", "", "path to optional persistent index file")