diff --git a/doc/snac.8 b/doc/snac.8
index b96899e..73b041a 100644
--- a/doc/snac.8
+++ b/doc/snac.8
@@ -249,8 +249,8 @@ e.g. :happydoggo:). These images can be served from an external source or from t
 .Pa static
 directory of the instance admin.
 .Pp
-If you want to disable any Emoji substitution, leave it as a 0 byte file
-or with an empty JSON object ({}).
+If you want to disable any Emoji substitution, change the file to contain
+just an empty JSON object ({}).
 .Ss SPAM Mitigation
 There have been some SPAM attacks on the Fediverse and, as too many
 instances and server implementations out there still allow automatic
diff --git a/format.c b/format.c
index f89fe21..92901bb 100644
--- a/format.c
+++ b/format.c
@@ -58,6 +58,8 @@ xs_dict *emojis(void)
             xs_json_dump(d, 4, f);
             fclose(f);
         }
+        else
+            srv_log(xs_fmt("Error creating '%s'", fn));
     }
 
     xs_dict *d = NULL;
@@ -65,7 +67,12 @@ xs_dict *emojis(void)
     if ((f = fopen(fn, "r")) != NULL) {
         d = xs_json_load(f);
         fclose(f);
+
+        if (d == NULL)
+            srv_log(xs_fmt("JSON parse error in '%s'", fn));
     }
+    else
+        srv_log(xs_fmt("Error opening '%s'", fn));
 
     return d;
 }