diff --git a/IkiWiki/Plugin/recentchanges.pm b/IkiWiki/Plugin/recentchanges.pm
index 8f707afc4..f5982604b 100644
--- a/IkiWiki/Plugin/recentchanges.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki/Plugin/recentchanges.pm
@@ -6,25 +6,30 @@ use strict;
 use IkiWiki 2.00;
 
 sub import { #{{{
-	hook(type => "refresh", id => "recentchanges",
-		call => \&refresh);
-	hook(type => "preprocess", id => "recentchanges",
-		call => \&preprocess);
-	hook(type => "htmlize", id => "_change",
-		call => \&htmlize);
+	hook(type => "checkconfig", id => "recentchanges", call => \&checkconfig);
+	hook(type => "refresh", id => "recentchanges", call => \&refresh);
+	hook(type => "htmlize", id => "_change", call => \&htmlize);
+} #}}}
+
+sub checkconfig () { #{{{
+	$config{recentchangespage}='recentchanges' unless defined $config{recentchangespage};
+	$config{recentchangesnum}=100 unless defined $config{recentchangesnum};
 } #}}}
 
 sub refresh ($) { #{{{
-	my @changes=IkiWiki::rcs_recentchanges(100);
-	updatechanges("*", "recentchanges", \@changes);
-} #}}}
+	my %seen;
 
-sub preprocess (@) { #{{{
-	my %params=@_;
-
-	# TODO
-
-	return "";
+	# add new changes
+	foreach my $change (IkiWiki::rcs_recentchanges($config{recentchangesnum})) {
+		$seen{store($change, $config{recentchangespage})}=1;
+	}
+	
+	# delete old and excess changes
+	foreach my $page (keys %pagesources) {
+		if ($page=~/^\Q$config{recentchangespage}\E\/change_/ && ! $seen{$page}) {
+			unlink($config{srcdir}.'/'.$pagesources{$page});
+		}
+	}
 } #}}}
 
 # Pages with extension _change have plain html markup, pass through.
@@ -33,11 +38,10 @@ sub htmlize (@) { #{{{
 	return $params{content};
 } #}}}
 
-sub store ($$) { #{{{
+sub store ($$$) { #{{{
 	my $change=shift;
-	my $subdir=shift;
-	
-	my $page="$subdir/change_".IkiWiki::titlepage($change->{rev});
+
+	my $page="$config{recentchangespage}/change_".IkiWiki::titlepage($change->{rev});
 
 	# Optimisation to avoid re-writing pages. Assumes commits never
 	# change (or that any changes are not important).
@@ -102,23 +106,9 @@ sub store ($$) { #{{{
 } #}}}
 
 sub updatechanges ($$) { #{{{
-	my $pagespec=shift;
 	my $subdir=shift;
 	my @changes=@{shift()};
 	
-	my %seen;
-
-	# add new changes
-	foreach my $change (@changes) {
-		$seen{store($change, $subdir)}=1;
-	}
-	
-	# delete old and excess changes
-	foreach my $page (keys %pagesources) {
-		if ($page=~/^\Q$subdir\E\/change_/ && ! $seen{$page}) {
-			unlink($config{srcdir}.'/'.$pagesources{$page});
-		}
-	}
 } #}}}
 
 1
diff --git a/IkiWiki/Render.pm b/IkiWiki/Render.pm
index b5b461499..ed359bdd7 100644
--- a/IkiWiki/Render.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki/Render.pm
@@ -85,8 +85,8 @@ sub genpage ($$) { #{{{
 		$actions++;
 	}
 		
-	if ($config{rcs}) {
-		$template->param(recentchangesurl => urlto("recentchanges", $page));
+	if ($config{rcs} && exists $config{recentchangespage}) {
+		$template->param(recentchangesurl => urlto($config{recentchangespage}, $page));
 		$actions++;
 	}
 
diff --git a/doc/cgi.mdwn b/doc/cgi.mdwn
index 22d8c4332..1448fa4d5 100644
--- a/doc/cgi.mdwn
+++ b/doc/cgi.mdwn
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
-While ikiwiki is primarily a wiki compiler, which generates static html pages, it does use CGI for two important wiki features, online page editing and the [[RecentChanges]] display.
+While ikiwiki is primarily a wiki compiler, which generates static html
+pages, it does use CGI for online page editing.
 
-To enable CGI, you need to create and install an ikiwiki.cgi wrapper. [[Setup]] explains how to do this.
\ No newline at end of file
+To enable CGI, you need to create and install an ikiwiki.cgi wrapper.
+[[Setup]] explains how to do this.
diff --git a/doc/ikiwiki.setup b/doc/ikiwiki.setup
index af27f1d7e..9bf542981 100644
--- a/doc/ikiwiki.setup
+++ b/doc/ikiwiki.setup
@@ -115,6 +115,9 @@ use IkiWiki::Setup::Standard {
 	#account_creation_password => "example",
 	# Uncomment to force ikiwiki to run with a particular umask.
 	#umask => 022,
+	# Default settings for the recentchanges page.
+	#recentchangespage => "recentchanges",
+	#recentchangesnum => 100,
 
 	# To add plugins, list them here.
 	#add_plugins => [qw{goodstuff search wikitext camelcase
diff --git a/doc/plugins/recentchanges.mdwn b/doc/plugins/recentchanges.mdwn
index 69073adf0..8647985c9 100644
--- a/doc/plugins/recentchanges.mdwn
+++ b/doc/plugins/recentchanges.mdwn
@@ -5,12 +5,8 @@ generates a page describing each recent change made to the wiki. These
 pages can be joined together with [[inline]] to generate the
 [[RecentChanges]] page.
 
-Typically only the RecentChanges page will use the plugin, but you can
-use it elsewhere too if you like. It's used like this:
+Typically only the RecentChanges page will use the pages generated by this
+plugin, but you can use it elsewhere too if you like. It's used like this:
 
-	\[[recentchanges pages="*" num=100 template=change]]
 	\[[inline pages="internal(recentchanges/change_*)"
 	template=recentchanges show=0]]
-
-The pages describing recent changes will be created as [[subpages|subpage]]
-of the page where the `recentchanges` directive is placed.
diff --git a/doc/recentchanges.mdwn b/doc/recentchanges.mdwn
index d702b0f34..2dd218520 100644
--- a/doc/recentchanges.mdwn
+++ b/doc/recentchanges.mdwn
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 Recent changes to this wiki:
 
-[[recentchanges pages="*" num=100 template=change]]
 [[inline pages="internal(recentchanges/change_*) and !*/Discussion" 
 template=recentchanges show=0]]
diff --git a/doc/usage.mdwn b/doc/usage.mdwn
index 354e266f1..f34d5bad6 100644
--- a/doc/usage.mdwn
+++ b/doc/usage.mdwn
@@ -33,8 +33,7 @@ These options control the mode that ikiwiki operates in.
 * --cgi
 
   Enable [[CGI]] mode. In cgi mode ikiwiki runs as a cgi script, and
-  supports editing pages, signing in, registration, and displaying
-  [[RecentChanges]].
+  supports editing pages, signing in, and registration.
 
   To use ikiwiki as a [[CGI]] program you need to use --wrapper or --setup
   to generate a wrapper. The wrapper will generally need to run suid 6755 to
@@ -141,8 +140,7 @@ configuration options of their own.
   whatever the revision control system you select uses.
 
   In [[CGI]] mode, with a revision control system enabled, pages edited via
-  the web will be committed. Also, the [[RecentChanges]] link will be placed
-  on pages.
+  the web will be committed.
 
   No revision control is enabled by default.
 
diff --git a/docwiki.setup b/docwiki.setup
index 5793d87bf..e8f680a20 100644
--- a/docwiki.setup
+++ b/docwiki.setup
@@ -15,10 +15,6 @@ use IkiWiki::Setup::Standard {
 	syslog => 0,
 	userdir => "users",
 	usedirs => 0,
-	rcs => 'git',
-	rss => 1,
-	cgiurl => "http://ikiwiki.info/ikiwiki.cgi",
-	url => "http://ikiwiki.info",
-	add_plugins => [qw{goodstuff version haiku polygen fortune
-		recentchanges }],
+	add_plugins => [qw{goodstuff version haiku polygen fortune}],
+	disable_plugins => [qw{recentchanges}],
 }
diff --git a/po/ikiwiki.pot b/po/ikiwiki.pot
index 98882d535..4e43f5da9 100644
--- a/po/ikiwiki.pot
+++ b/po/ikiwiki.pot
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ msgid ""
 msgstr ""
 "Project-Id-Version: PACKAGE VERSION\n"
 "Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: \n"
-"POT-Creation-Date: 2008-01-29 15:21-0500\n"
+"POT-Creation-Date: 2008-01-29 15:46-0500\n"
 "PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n"
 "Last-Translator: FULL NAME <EMAIL@ADDRESS>\n"
 "Language-Team: LANGUAGE <LL@li.org>\n"
diff --git a/t/pagespec_match.t b/t/pagespec_match.t
index 3a641c6a8..cb98ab149 100755
--- a/t/pagespec_match.t
+++ b/t/pagespec_match.t
@@ -67,9 +67,6 @@ ok(! pagespec_match("foo", "creation_day(3)"), "other day");
 
 ok(! pagespec_match("foo", "no_such_function(foo)"), "foo");
 
-ok(pagespec_match("foo", "foo and user(bar)", user => "bar"), "user");
-ok(! pagespec_match("foo", "foo and user(bar)", user => "baz"), "user fail");
-
 my $ret=pagespec_match("foo", "(invalid");
 ok(! $ret, "syntax error");
 ok($ret eq "syntax error", "error message");