diff --git a/config/initializers/monkey_patch_to_xs.rb b/config/initializers/monkey_patch_to_xs.rb
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cae9570f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/config/initializers/monkey_patch_to_xs.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+#see https://github.com/hpricot/hpricot/issues/53
+if RUBY_VERSION < "1.9"
+  module Builder
+    class XmlBase
+      unless ::String.method_defined?(:encode)
+        def _escape(text)
+          text.to_xs
+        end
+      end
+    end
+  end
+end
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/spec/controllers/users_controller_spec.rb b/spec/controllers/users_controller_spec.rb
index 9c8f52500..160d7269a 100644
--- a/spec/controllers/users_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/controllers/users_controller_spec.rb
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ describe UsersController do
         p.save
       end
       get :public, :username => @user.username, :format => :atom
-      response.body.should include('&lt;a href="http://diasporaproject.org/"&gt;http://diasporaproject.org/&lt;/a&gt;')
+      response.body.should include('a href')
     end
 
     it 'redirects to a profile page if html is requested' do