diff --git a/warcprox/__init__.py b/warcprox/__init__.py
index 4825e29..2dcc838 100644
--- a/warcprox/__init__.py
+++ b/warcprox/__init__.py
@@ -148,6 +148,8 @@ class BasePostfetchProcessor(threading.Thread):
         raise Exception('not implemented')
 
     def _run(self):
+        threading.current_thread().name = '%s(tid=%s)' % (
+                threading.current_thread().name, gettid())
         self.logger.info('%s starting up', self)
         self._startup()
         while not self.stop.is_set():
diff --git a/warcprox/dedup.py b/warcprox/dedup.py
index 81be2ea..c0bc817 100644
--- a/warcprox/dedup.py
+++ b/warcprox/dedup.py
@@ -405,7 +405,9 @@ class BatchTroughLoader(warcprox.BaseBatchPostfetchProcessor):
                             recorded_url.payload_digest, self.options.base32)
                         if recorded_url.payload_digest else 'n/a')
         self.logger.debug(
-                'filtered out digests (not loading dedup): %r', discards)
+                'len(batch)=%s len(discards)=%s buckets=%s',
+                len(batch), len(discards),
+                {bucket: len(buckets[bucket]) for bucket in buckets})
         return buckets
 
     def _build_key_index(self, batch):
@@ -459,8 +461,8 @@ class BatchTroughLoader(warcprox.BaseBatchPostfetchProcessor):
                         novel = sorted([
                             k for k in key_index.keys() if k not in dups])
                         self.logger.debug(
-                                'bucket %s: dups=%r novel=%r',
-                                bucket, dups, novel)
+                                'bucket %s: dups(%s)=%r novel(%s)=%r',
+                                bucket, len(dups), dups, len(novel), novel)
 
             except futures.TimeoutError as e:
                 # the remaining threads actually keep running in this case,
diff --git a/warcprox/writer.py b/warcprox/writer.py
index 9ab249c..ffdca8f 100644
--- a/warcprox/writer.py
+++ b/warcprox/writer.py
@@ -204,13 +204,14 @@ class WarcWriter:
                 record.offset = offset
                 record.length = warc.f.tell() - offset
                 record.warc_filename = warc.finalname
-                self.logger.debug(
+                self.logger.trace(
                         'wrote warc record: warc_type=%s content_length=%s '
-                        'url=%s warc=%s offset=%d',
-                        record.get_header(warctools.WarcRecord.TYPE),
+                        'digest=%s offset=%d warc=%s url=%s',
+                        record.type,
                         record.get_header(warctools.WarcRecord.CONTENT_LENGTH),
-                        record.get_header(warctools.WarcRecord.URL),
-                        warc.path, record.offset)
+                        record.get_header(b'WARC-Payload-Digest'),
+                        record.offset, warc.path,
+                        record.get_header(warctools.WarcRecord.URL))
 
         return records
 
diff --git a/warcprox/writerthread.py b/warcprox/writerthread.py
index ef0bd2d..9d85b6f 100644
--- a/warcprox/writerthread.py
+++ b/warcprox/writerthread.py
@@ -117,19 +117,18 @@ class WarcWriterProcessor(warcprox.BaseStandardPostfetchProcessor):
                 and self._filter_accepts(recorded_url))
 
     def _log(self, recorded_url, records):
-        try:
-            payload_digest = records[0].get_header('WARC-Payload-Digest').decode("utf-8")
-        except:
-            payload_digest = "-"
-
         # 2015-07-17T22:32:23.672Z     1         58 dns:www.dhss.delaware.gov P http://www.dhss.delaware.gov/dhss/ text/dns #045 20150717223214881+316 sha1:63UTPB7GTWIHAGIK3WWL76E57BBTJGAK http://www.dhss.delaware.gov/dhss/ - {"warcFileOffset":2964,"warcFilename":"ARCHIVEIT-1303-WEEKLY-JOB165158-20150717223222113-00000.warc.gz"}
-        type_ = records[0].type.decode("utf-8") if records else '-'
+        try:
+            payload_digest = records[0].get_header(b'WARC-Payload-Digest').decode('utf-8')
+        except:
+            payload_digest = '-'
+        type_ = records[0].type.decode('utf-8') if records else '-'
         filename = records[0].warc_filename if records else '-'
         offset = records[0].offset if records else '-'
         self.logger.info(
-                "%s %s %s %s %s size=%s %s %s %s offset=%s",
+                '%s %s %s %s %s size=%s %s %s %s offset=%s',
                 recorded_url.client_ip, recorded_url.status,
-                recorded_url.method, recorded_url.url.decode("utf-8"),
+                recorded_url.method, recorded_url.url.decode('utf-8'),
                 recorded_url.mimetype, recorded_url.size, payload_digest,
                 type_, filename, offset)