diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3b7e37b1..642f46cd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -546,6 +546,8 @@ and there are *two* editors
 
 * you can link a particular timestamp in an audio file by adding it to the URL, such as `&20` / `&20s` / `&1m20` / `&t=1:20` after the `.../#af-c8960dab`
 
+* get a plaintext file listing by adding `?ls=t` to a URL, or a compact colored one with `?ls=v` (for unix terminals)
+
 * if you are using media hotkeys to switch songs and are getting tired of seeing the OSD popup which Windows doesn't let you disable, consider https://ocv.me/dev/?media-osd-bgone.ps1
 
 * click the bottom-left `π` to open a javascript prompt for debugging
@@ -716,7 +718,7 @@ that'll run the command `notify-send` with the path to the uploaded file as the
 
 note that it will only trigger on new unique files, not dupes
 
-and it will occupy the parsing threads, so fork anything expensive, or if you want to intentionally queue/singlethread you can combine it with `--no-mtag-mt`
+and it will occupy the parsing threads, so fork anything expensive, or if you want to intentionally queue/singlethread you can combine it with `--mtag-mt 1`
 
 if this becomes popular maybe there should be a less janky way to do it actually
 
diff --git a/copyparty/__main__.py b/copyparty/__main__.py
index 24617f4f..2ec74f24 100644
--- a/copyparty/__main__.py
+++ b/copyparty/__main__.py
@@ -208,6 +208,8 @@ def run_argparse(argv, formatter):
     except:
         fk_salt = "hunter2"
 
+    cores = os.cpu_count() if hasattr(os, "cpu_count") else 4
+
     sects = [
         [
             "accounts",
@@ -333,7 +335,7 @@ def run_argparse(argv, formatter):
     ap2 = ap.add_argument_group('general options')
     ap2.add_argument("-c", metavar="PATH", type=u, action="append", help="add config file")
     ap2.add_argument("-nc", metavar="NUM", type=int, default=64, help="max num clients")
-    ap2.add_argument("-j", metavar="CORES", type=int, default=1, help="max num cpu cores")
+    ap2.add_argument("-j", metavar="CORES", type=int, default=1, help="max num cpu cores, 0=all")
     ap2.add_argument("-a", metavar="ACCT", type=u, action="append", help="add account, USER:PASS; example [ed:wark")
     ap2.add_argument("-v", metavar="VOL", type=u, action="append", help="add volume, SRC:DST:FLAG; example [.::r], [/mnt/nas/music:/music:r:aed")
     ap2.add_argument("-ed", action="store_true", help="enable ?dots")
@@ -402,7 +404,7 @@ def run_argparse(argv, formatter):
     ap2.add_argument("--no-thumb", action="store_true", help="disable all thumbnails")
     ap2.add_argument("--no-vthumb", action="store_true", help="disable video thumbnails")
     ap2.add_argument("--th-size", metavar="WxH", default="320x256", help="thumbnail res")
-    ap2.add_argument("--th-mt", metavar="CORES", type=int, default=0, help="max num cpu cores to use, 0=all")
+    ap2.add_argument("--th-mt", metavar="CORES", type=int, default=cores, help="num cpu cores to use for generating thumbnails")
     ap2.add_argument("--th-no-crop", action="store_true", help="dynamic height; show full image")
     ap2.add_argument("--th-no-jpg", action="store_true", help="disable jpg output")
     ap2.add_argument("--th-no-webp", action="store_true", help="disable webp output")
@@ -428,8 +430,8 @@ def run_argparse(argv, formatter):
     ap2.add_argument("-e2ts", action="store_true", help="enable metadata scanner, sets -e2t")
     ap2.add_argument("-e2tsr", action="store_true", help="rescan all metadata, sets -e2ts")
     ap2.add_argument("--no-mutagen", action="store_true", help="use FFprobe for tags instead")
-    ap2.add_argument("--no-mtag-mt", action="store_true", help="disable tag-read parallelism")
     ap2.add_argument("--no-mtag-ff", action="store_true", help="never use FFprobe as tag reader")
+    ap2.add_argument("--mtag-mt", metavar="CORES", type=int, default=cores, help="num cpu cores to use for tag scanning")
     ap2.add_argument("-mtm", metavar="M=t,t,t", type=u, action="append", help="add/replace metadata mapping")
     ap2.add_argument("-mte", metavar="M,M,M", type=u, help="tags to index/display (comma-sep.)",
         default="circle,album,.tn,artist,title,.bpm,key,.dur,.q,.vq,.aq,vc,ac,res,.fps,ahash,vhash")
diff --git a/copyparty/th_srv.py b/copyparty/th_srv.py
index ef769a24..d3552429 100644
--- a/copyparty/th_srv.py
+++ b/copyparty/th_srv.py
@@ -105,9 +105,7 @@ class ThumbSrv(object):
         self.mutex = threading.Lock()
         self.busy = {}
         self.stopping = False
-        self.nthr = self.args.th_mt
-        if not self.nthr:
-            self.nthr = os.cpu_count() if hasattr(os, "cpu_count") else 4
+        self.nthr = max(1, self.args.th_mt)
 
         self.q = Queue(self.nthr * 4)
         for n in range(self.nthr):
@@ -130,7 +128,7 @@ class ThumbSrv(object):
             self.log(msg, c=3)
 
         if self.args.th_clean:
-            t = threading.Thread(target=self.cleaner, name="thumb-cleaner")
+            t = threading.Thread(target=self.cleaner, name="thumb.cln")
             t.daemon = True
             t.start()
 
diff --git a/copyparty/up2k.py b/copyparty/up2k.py
index e84a2e3b..f3d73f82 100644
--- a/copyparty/up2k.py
+++ b/copyparty/up2k.py
@@ -131,9 +131,11 @@ class Up2k(object):
             thr.start()
 
             if self.mtag:
-                thr = threading.Thread(target=self._tagger, name="up2k-tagger")
-                thr.daemon = True
-                thr.start()
+                for n in range(max(1, self.args.mtag_mt)):
+                    name = "tagger-{}".format(n)
+                    thr = threading.Thread(target=self._tagger, name=name)
+                    thr.daemon = True
+                    thr.start()
 
                 thr = threading.Thread(target=self._run_all_mtp, name="up2k-mtp-init")
                 thr.daemon = True
@@ -700,7 +702,7 @@ class Up2k(object):
                 return n_add, n_rm, False
 
             mpool = False
-            if self.mtag.prefer_mt and not self.args.no_mtag_mt:
+            if self.mtag.prefer_mt and self.args.mtag_mt > 1:
                 mpool = self._start_mpool()
 
             conn = sqlite3.connect(db_path, timeout=15)
@@ -933,9 +935,7 @@ class Up2k(object):
     def _start_mpool(self):
         # mp.pool.ThreadPool and concurrent.futures.ThreadPoolExecutor
         # both do crazy runahead so lets reinvent another wheel
-        nw = os.cpu_count() if hasattr(os, "cpu_count") else 4
-        if self.args.no_mtag_mt:
-            nw = 1
+        nw = max(1, self.args.mtag_mt)
 
         if self.pending_tags is None:
             self.log("using {}x {}".format(nw, self.mtag.backend))
diff --git a/copyparty/util.py b/copyparty/util.py
index 3a9e86f8..8ab2ff9a 100644
--- a/copyparty/util.py
+++ b/copyparty/util.py
@@ -445,7 +445,7 @@ def log_thrs(log, ival, name):
         tv = [x.name for x in threading.enumerate()]
         tv = [
             x.split("-")[0]
-            if x.startswith("httpconn-") or x.startswith("thumb-")
+            if x.split("-")[0] in ["httpconn", "thumb", "tagger"]
             else "listen"
             if "-listen-" in x
             else x