diff --git a/boot.php b/boot.php
index 545883eb98..49679c3b7f 100644
--- a/boot.php
+++ b/boot.php
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 
 set_time_limit(0);
 
-define ( 'BUILD_ID',               1020   );
+define ( 'BUILD_ID',               1021   );
 define ( 'DFRN_PROTOCOL_VERSION',  '2.0'  );
 
 define ( 'EOL',                    "<br />\r\n"     );
diff --git a/database.sql b/database.sql
index 41d256d731..be0671bb16 100644
--- a/database.sql
+++ b/database.sql
@@ -153,14 +153,15 @@ CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `intro` (
 
 CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `item` (
   `id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
-  `uri` char(255) CHARACTER SET ascii NOT NULL,
+  `uri` char(255) NOT NULL,
   `uid` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
   `contact-id` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
   `type` char(255) NOT NULL,
   `wall` tinyint(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
   `gravity` tinyint(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
   `parent` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL DEFAULT '0',
-  `parent-uri` char(255) CHARACTER SET ascii NOT NULL,
+  `parent-uri` char(255) NOT NULL,
+  `thr-parent` char(255) NOT NULL,
   `created` datetime NOT NULL,
   `edited` datetime NOT NULL,
   `changed` datetime NOT NULL,
diff --git a/include/items.php b/include/items.php
index 04b86ab3fe..a4d3953f9f 100644
--- a/include/items.php
+++ b/include/items.php
@@ -553,9 +553,14 @@ function item_store($arr) {
 
 	// The content body has been through a lot of filtering and transport escaping by now. 
 	// We don't want to skip any filters, however a side effect of all this filtering 
-	// is that ampersands will have been double encoded. 
+	// is that ampersands and <> may have been double encoded, depending on which filter chain
+	// they came through. 
 
-	$arr['body']          = str_replace('&amp;amp;','&amp;',$arr['body']);
+	$arr['body']          = str_replace(
+								array('&amp;amp;','&amp;gt;','&amp;lt;'),
+								array('&amp;'    ,'&gt;'    ,'&lt;'),
+								$arr['body']
+							);
 
 
 
@@ -576,6 +581,16 @@ function item_store($arr) {
 		);
 
 		if(count($r)) {
+
+			// is the new message multi-level threaded?
+			// even though we don't support it now, preserve the info
+			// and re-attach to the conversation parent.
+
+			if($r[0]['uri'] != $r[0]['parent-uri']) {
+				$arr['thr-parent'] = $arr['parent-uri'];
+				$arr['parent-uri'] = $r[0]['parent-uri'];
+			}
+
 			$parent_id = $r[0]['id'];
 			$allow_cid = $r[0]['allow_cid'];
 			$allow_gid = $r[0]['allow_gid'];
diff --git a/update.php b/update.php
index 28e4bcf709..b1950e5882 100644
--- a/update.php
+++ b/update.php
@@ -180,6 +180,9 @@ function update_1018() {
 function update_1019() {
 	q("ALTER TABLE `mail` DROP `delivered`");
 	q("ALTER TABLE `profile` ADD `showwith` TINYINT(1) NOT NULL DEFAULT '0' AFTER `marital` ");
-
 }
 
+function update_1020() {
+	q("ALTER TABLE `profile` DROP `showwith`");
+	q("ALTER TABLE `item` ADD `thr-parent` CHAR( 255 ) NOT NULL AFTER `parent-uri` ");
+}