diff --git a/docs/filters.html b/docs/filters.html
index b4a0394..865aa41 100644
--- a/docs/filters.html
+++ b/docs/filters.html
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
 parameters come from the config file, and output goes to <code>stdout</code>.
 Anything written to <code>stderr</code> is logged as an ERROR message.  If no
 <code>stdout</code> is produced, the entry is not written to the cache or
-processed further.</p>
+processed further; in fact, if the entry had previously been written to the cache, it will be removed.</p>
 
 <p>Input to a filter is a aggressively
 <a href="normalization.html">normalized</a> entry.  For
@@ -54,6 +54,18 @@ instead of XPath expressions.</p>
 <h3>Notes</h3>
 
 <ul>
+<li>Filters are executed when a feed is fetched, and the results are placed
+into the cache.  Changing a configuration file alone is not sufficient to
+change the contents of the cache &mdash; typically that only occurs after
+a feed is modified.</li>
+
+<li>Filters are simply invoked in the order they are listed in the
+configuration file (think unix pipes). Planet wide filters are executed before
+feed specific filters.</li>
+
+<li>Any filters listed in the <code>[planet]</code> section of your config.ini
+will be invoked on all feeds.  Filters listed in individual
+<code>[feed]</code> sections will only be invoked on those feeds.</li>
 
 <li>The file extension of the filter is significant.  <code>.py</code> invokes
 python. <code>.xslt</code> involkes XSLT.  <code>.sed</code> and
@@ -61,14 +73,6 @@ python. <code>.xslt</code> involkes XSLT.  <code>.sed</code> and
 perl or ruby or class/jar (java), aren't supported at the moment, but these
 would be easy to add.</li>
 
-<li>Any filters listed in the <code>[planet]</code> section of your config.ini
-will be invoked on all feeds.  Filters listed in individual
-<code>[feed]</code> sections will only be invoked on those feeds.</li>
-
-<li>Filters are simply invoked in the order they are listed in the
-configuration file (think unix pipes). Planet wide filters are executed before
-feed specific filters.</li>
-
 <li>Templates written using htmltmpl currently only have access to a fixed set
 of fields, whereas XSLT templates have access to everything.</li>
 </ul>
diff --git a/planet/spider.py b/planet/spider.py
index 3ee8515..e88d203 100644
--- a/planet/spider.py
+++ b/planet/spider.py
@@ -194,7 +194,9 @@ def writeCache(feed_uri, feed_info, data):
         for filter in config.filters(feed_uri):
             output = shell.run(filter, output, mode="filter")
             if not output: break
-        if not output: continue
+        if not output:
+          if os.path.exists(cache_file): os.remove(cache_file)
+          continue
 
         # write out and timestamp the results
         write(output, cache_file) 
diff --git a/tests/test_spider.py b/tests/test_spider.py
index ecf5986..1936f8d 100644
--- a/tests/test_spider.py
+++ b/tests/test_spider.py
@@ -73,6 +73,14 @@ class SpiderTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.spiderFeed(testfeed % '1b')
         self.verify_spiderFeed()
 
+    def test_spiderFeed_retroactive_filter(self):
+        config.load(configfile)
+        self.spiderFeed(testfeed % '1b')
+        self.assertEqual(5, len(glob.glob(workdir+"/*")))
+        config.parser.set('Planet', 'filter', 'two')
+        self.spiderFeed(testfeed % '1b')
+        self.assertEqual(1, len(glob.glob(workdir+"/*")))
+
     def test_spiderUpdate(self):
         config.load(configfile)
         self.spiderFeed(testfeed % '1a')