diff --git a/templates/themes/catalog/theme.php b/templates/themes/catalog/theme.php
index 35281649..32cc1818 100644
--- a/templates/themes/catalog/theme.php
+++ b/templates/themes/catalog/theme.php
@@ -34,8 +34,7 @@
             }
             if(isset($settings['has_overboard']) && $settings['has_overboard']) {
                 foreach ($overboards_config as &$overboard) {
-                    $exclusions = explode(' ', $overboard['exclude']);
-                    $included_boards = array_diff(listBoards(true), $exclusions);
+                    $included_boards = array_diff(listBoards(true), $overboard['exclude']);
                     $action = generation_strategy("sb_catalog", array($overboard));
                     if ($action == 'delete') {
                         file_unlink($config['dir']['home'] . $overboard . '/catalog.html');
@@ -61,8 +60,7 @@
                 if(isset($settings['has_overboard']) && $settings['has_overboard']) {
                     foreach ($overboards_config as &$overboard) {
                         if ($overboard['uri'] == $board) {
-                            $exclusions = explode(' ', $overboard['exclude']);
-                            $included_boards = array_diff(listBoards(true), $exclusions);
+                            $included_boards = array_diff(listBoards(true), $overboard['exclude']);
                             $b->buildOverboardCatalog($board, $settings, $included_boards);
                         }
                     }
diff --git a/templates/themes/overboards/overboards.php b/templates/themes/overboards/overboards.php
index 637def65..39202ade 100644
--- a/templates/themes/overboards/overboards.php
+++ b/templates/themes/overboards/overboards.php
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 /*
  * When adding a new board, rebuild this theme. If necessary, reconfigure the catalog theme.
- * Exclude list is space-separated (e.g. 'exclude' => 'b games music' )
+ * Exclude list is a PHP array e.g. 'exclude' => array('b', 'games', 'music')
  */
 	$thread_limit = 30;
 
@@ -12,14 +12,14 @@
 			'title' => 'Overboard',
 			'uri' => 'overboard',
 			'subtitle' => '30 most recently bumped threads',
-			'exclude' => '',
+			'exclude' => array(),
 			'thread_limit' => $thread_limit,
 		),
 		array(
 			'title' => 'SFW Overboard',
 			'uri' => 'sfwoverboard',
 			'subtitle' => '30 most recently bumped threads from work-safe boards',
-			'exclude' => 'b',
+			'exclude' => array('b'),
 			'thread_limit' => $thread_limit,
 		),
 	);
diff --git a/templates/themes/overboards/theme.php b/templates/themes/overboards/theme.php
index 59a8c963..90f6b4e3 100644
--- a/templates/themes/overboards/theme.php
+++ b/templates/themes/overboards/theme.php
@@ -39,8 +39,8 @@
 	 */
 	class overboards {
 		private $settings;
-//TODO review if appropriate uses of pass by ref (&$)
-		function __construct(&$settings) {
+
+		function __construct($settings) {
 			$this->settings = $this->parseSettings($settings);
 		}
 
@@ -54,7 +54,6 @@
 					error('Invalid configuration parameters.', true);
 				}
 
-				$overboard['exclude']      = explode(' ', $overboard['exclude']);
 				$overboard['thread_limit'] = intval($overboard['thread_limit']);
 
 				if ($overboard['thread_limit'] < 1)
@@ -230,3 +229,4 @@
 		}
 	}
 
+