diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 19cf9ac..75c52fb 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -404,7 +404,7 @@ source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "flodgatt"
-version = "0.4.3"
+version = "0.4.4"
 dependencies = [
  "criterion 0.3.0 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
  "dotenv 0.14.0 (registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index)",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 20132f5..229da5d 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 [package]
 name = "flodgatt"
 description = "A blazingly fast drop-in replacement for the Mastodon streaming api server"
-version = "0.4.3"
+version = "0.4.4"
 authors = ["Daniel Long Sockwell <daniel@codesections.com", "Julian Laubstein <contact@julianlaubstein.de>"]
 edition = "2018"
 
diff --git a/src/config/mod.rs b/src/config/mod.rs
index 01dd633..b2b314d 100644
--- a/src/config/mod.rs
+++ b/src/config/mod.rs
@@ -117,13 +117,21 @@ macro_rules! from_env_var {
                 $body
             }
             pub fn maybe_update(self, var: Option<&String>) -> Self {
-                if let Some(value) = var {
-                    Self(Self::inner_from_str(value).unwrap_or_else(|| {
+                match var {
+                    Some(empty_string) if empty_string.is_empty() => Self::default(),
+                    Some(value) => Self(Self::inner_from_str(value).unwrap_or_else(|| {
                         crate::err::env_var_fatal($env_var, value, $allowed_values)
-                    }))
-                } else {
-                    self
+                    })),
+                    None => self,
                 }
+
+                // if let Some(value) = var {
+                //     Self(Self::inner_from_str(value).unwrap_or_else(|| {
+                //         crate::err::env_var_fatal($env_var, value, $allowed_values)
+                //     }))
+                // } else {
+                //     self
+                // }
             }
         }
     };