diff --git a/app/models/person.rb b/app/models/person.rb
index b1aa8641d..6cc255e8b 100644
--- a/app/models/person.rb
+++ b/app/models/person.rb
@@ -30,11 +30,19 @@ class Person
 
   before_destroy :remove_all_traces
   before_validation :clean_url
-  validates_presence_of :diaspora_handle, :url, :profile, :serialized_key 
+  after_create :ensure_diaspora_handle
+  validates_presence_of :url, :profile, :serialized_key 
   validates_format_of :url, :with =>
      /^(https?):\/\/[a-z0-9]+([\-\.]{1}[a-z0-9]+)*(\.[a-z]{2,5})?(:[0-9]{1,5})?(\/.*)?$/ix
   
   
+  def ensure_diaspora_handle
+    if self.owner?
+      self.diaspora_handle = self.owner.diaspora_handle
+      self.save
+    end
+  end
+  
   def self.search(query)
     Person.all('$where' => "function() { return this.diaspora_handle.match(/^#{query}/i) ||
                this.profile.first_name.match(/^#{query}/i) ||
diff --git a/app/models/user.rb b/app/models/user.rb
index 9eb33f2d7..caf39d2f7 100644
--- a/app/models/user.rb
+++ b/app/models/user.rb
@@ -284,7 +284,7 @@ class User
 
   ###Helpers############
   def self.instantiate!( opts = {} )
-    opts[:person][:email] = opts[:email]
+    opts[:person][:diaspora_handle] = opts[:email]
     opts[:person][:serialized_key] = generate_key
     User.create!( opts)
   end
@@ -305,7 +305,7 @@ class User
 
   def setup_person
     self.person.serialized_key ||= User.generate_key.export
-    self.person.diaspora_handle ||= self.diaspora_handle
+    #self.person.diaspora_handle ||= self.diaspora_handle
     self.person.save!
   end