diff --git a/include/bb2diaspora.php b/include/bb2diaspora.php
index 919bfc331d..34c932f745 100644
--- a/include/bb2diaspora.php
+++ b/include/bb2diaspora.php
@@ -95,6 +95,9 @@ function bb2diaspora($Text,$preserve_nl = false, $fordiaspora = true) {
 	} else
 		$Text = bbcode($Text, $preserve_nl, false, 4);
 
+    // mask some special HTML chars from conversation to markdown
+    $Text = str_replace(array('<','>','&'),array('&_lt_;','&_gt_;','&_amp_;'),$Text);
+
 	// If a link is followed by a quote then there should be a newline before it
 	// Maybe we should make this newline at every time before a quote.
 	$Text = str_replace(array("</a><blockquote>"), array("</a><br><blockquote>"), $Text);
@@ -104,6 +107,9 @@ function bb2diaspora($Text,$preserve_nl = false, $fordiaspora = true) {
 	// Now convert HTML to Markdown
 	$Text = new HTML_To_Markdown($Text);
 
+    // unmask the special chars back to HTML
+    $Text = str_replace(array('&_lt_;','&_gt_;','&_amp_;'),array('&lt;','&gt;','&amp;'),$Text);
+
 	$a->save_timestamp($stamp1, "parser");
 
 	// Libertree has a problem with escaped hashtags.
diff --git a/include/text.php b/include/text.php
index f8bbfcee24..2d265e6eee 100644
--- a/include/text.php
+++ b/include/text.php
@@ -1138,9 +1138,9 @@ function smilies($s, $sample = false) {
 	);
 
 	$icons = array(
-		'<img class="smiley" src="' . $a->get_baseurl() . '/images/smiley-heart.gif" alt="<3" />',
-		'<img class="smiley" src="' . $a->get_baseurl() . '/images/smiley-brokenheart.gif" alt="</3" />',
-		'<img class="smiley" src="' . $a->get_baseurl() . '/images/smiley-brokenheart.gif" alt="<\\3" />',
+		'<img class="smiley" src="' . $a->get_baseurl() . '/images/smiley-heart.gif" alt="&lt;3" />',
+		'<img class="smiley" src="' . $a->get_baseurl() . '/images/smiley-brokenheart.gif" alt="&lt;/3" />',
+		'<img class="smiley" src="' . $a->get_baseurl() . '/images/smiley-brokenheart.gif" alt="&lt;\\3" />',
 		'<img class="smiley" src="' . $a->get_baseurl() . '/images/smiley-smile.gif" alt=":-)" />',
 		'<img class="smiley" src="' . $a->get_baseurl() . '/images/smiley-wink.gif" alt=";-)" />',
 		'<img class="smiley" src="' . $a->get_baseurl() . '/images/smiley-frown.gif" alt=":-(" />',
@@ -1217,7 +1217,7 @@ function preg_heart($x) {
 		return $x[0];
 	$t = '';
 	for($cnt = 0; $cnt < strlen($x[1]); $cnt ++)
-		$t .= '<img class="smiley" src="' . $a->get_baseurl() . '/images/smiley-heart.gif" alt="<3" />';
+		$t .= '<img class="smiley" src="' . $a->get_baseurl() . '/images/smiley-heart.gif" alt="&lt;3" />';
 	$r =  str_replace($x[0],$t,$x[0]);
 	return $r;
 }