diff --git a/app/models/person.rb b/app/models/person.rb
index c2614a26a..bed5bb246 100644
--- a/app/models/person.rb
+++ b/app/models/person.rb
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ class Person
        rescue SocketError => e
          raise "Diaspora server for #{identifier} not found" if e.message =~ /Name or service not known/
        end
-       raise "No webfinger profile found at #{identifier}" unless f
+       raise "No webfinger profile found at #{identifier}" if f.nil? || f.links.empty?
        Person.from_webfinger_profile(identifier, f )
      end
   end
@@ -97,7 +97,11 @@ class Person
   def self.from_webfinger_profile( identifier, profile)
     new_person = Person.new
 
-    public_key = profile.links.select{|x| x.rel == 'diaspora-public-key'}.first.href
+    public_key_entry = profile.links.select{|x| x.rel == 'diaspora-public-key'}
+    
+    return nil unless public_key_entry
+    
+    public_key = public_key_entry.first.href
     new_person.exported_key = Base64.decode64 public_key
 
     guid = profile.links.select{|x| x.rel == 'http://joindiaspora.com/guid'}.first.href
diff --git a/app/models/user.rb b/app/models/user.rb
index d09f55ea2..6a76ce772 100644
--- a/app/models/user.rb
+++ b/app/models/user.rb
@@ -286,7 +286,7 @@ class User
 
   ###Helpers############
   def self.instantiate!( opts = {} )
-    opts[:person][:diaspora_handle] = "#{opts[:username]}@#{opts[:url]}"
+    opts[:person][:diaspora_handle] = "#{opts[:username]}@#{URI::parse(opts[:url]).host}"
     opts[:person][:serialized_key] = generate_key
     User.create!(opts)
   end