diff --git a/wordle-life.cgi b/wordle-life.cgi
index 27fe919..8fa0b82 100755
--- a/wordle-life.cgi
+++ b/wordle-life.cgi
@@ -49,11 +49,8 @@ use Readonly;
  		#$wordle = "";
     } elsif ($method eq 'POST') {
     	#textarea name, pull the value from POST and reload into textarea
-    	if ( grep( /^wordle-result$/, $cgi->body_param_names) ) { #if no param exists, go down same path with default text as in GET case
-    		$wordle = chomp($cgi->body_param('wordle-result')); 
-    	}else{
-    		$wordle = $defaulttext;
-    	}		
+      	$wordle = $cgi->body_param('wordle-result'); 
+
       	#if input textarea not changed from default text, do nothing
       	unless ($wordle =~ /\Q$defaulttext\E/) { 
 			#[Cc] /){ #cheat, if they put in something that looks like an RLE, pass output through 
@@ -70,6 +67,8 @@ use Readonly;
        	exit;
     }
         	  
+   	die "Invalid wordle parameter" unless length $wordle;
+
    	#Load template from DATA section and output
 	my $mt = Mojo::Template->new(auto_escape => 1, vars => 1);   
     my $template = data_section __PACKAGE__, 'index.html.ep';
@@ -84,7 +83,7 @@ use Readonly;
 sub generate_rle {
 
 	my $headline = "";
-	my $rleline = "";
+	my $rleline;
 	my $rowcount;
 	my $myline;