diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index dcd7bee..ca96dbb 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -7,4 +7,5 @@ launchSettings.json
 .idea/
 .DS_Store
 data/
-output/
\ No newline at end of file
+output/
+*.DotSettings.user
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/MastodonConnectionHelper.cs b/src/MastodonConnectionHelper.cs
index f1f1349..968eaa1 100644
--- a/src/MastodonConnectionHelper.cs
+++ b/src/MastodonConnectionHelper.cs
@@ -6,16 +6,16 @@ public static class MastodonConnectionHelper
 {
     public static async Task<List<string>> GetFollowedTagsAsync()
     {
-        var res = new List<string>();
-
-        if (Config.Instance == null)
+        if (Config.Instance == null) throw new Exception("Config object is not initialized");
+        if (Config.Instance.MastodonPostgresConnectionString.IsNullOrEmpty())
         {
-            throw new Exception("Config object is not initialized");
+            throw new Exception("Missing mastodon postgres connection string");
         }
         
         await using var conn = new NpgsqlConnection(Config.Instance.MastodonPostgresConnectionString);
         await conn.OpenAsync();
 
+        var res = new List<string>();
         await using var cmd = new NpgsqlCommand("SELECT DISTINCT tags.name FROM tag_follows JOIN tags ON tag_id = tags.id ORDER BY tags.name ASC;", conn);
         await using var reader = await cmd.ExecuteReaderAsync();
         while (await reader.ReadAsync())