diff --git a/app/services/status_message_creation_service.rb b/app/services/status_message_creation_service.rb
index a0601d07b..c35a7176d 100644
--- a/app/services/status_message_creation_service.rb
+++ b/app/services/status_message_creation_service.rb
@@ -72,4 +72,7 @@ class StatusMessageCreationService
                        url:           short_post_url(status_message.guid, host: AppConfig.environment.url),
                        service_types: receiving_services)
   end
+
+  class BadAspectsIDs < RuntimeError
+  end
 end
diff --git a/spec/controllers/status_messages_controller_spec.rb b/spec/controllers/status_messages_controller_spec.rb
index c954ce4c6..d38c12289 100644
--- a/spec/controllers/status_messages_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/controllers/status_messages_controller_spec.rb
@@ -132,6 +132,12 @@ describe StatusMessagesController, :type => :controller do
         status_message = StatusMessage.find_by_text(text)
         expect(status_message.aspect_visibilities.map(&:aspect)).to match_array([@aspect1, @aspect2])
       end
+
+      it "responses 422 when aspect_ids don't contain any applicable aspect identifiers" do
+        bad_ids = [Aspect.ids.max.next, bob.aspects.first.id]
+        post :create, params: status_message_hash.merge(aspect_ids: bad_ids.to_s), format: :json
+        expect(response.status).to eq(422)
+      end
     end
 
     it "dispatches the post to the specified services" do
diff --git a/spec/services/status_message_creation_service_spec.rb b/spec/services/status_message_creation_service_spec.rb
index a7b9f05c3..aaca06da3 100644
--- a/spec/services/status_message_creation_service_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/services/status_message_creation_service_spec.rb
@@ -29,6 +29,13 @@ describe StatusMessageCreationService do
         status_message = StatusMessageCreationService.new(alice).create(params.merge(public: true))
         expect(status_message.aspect_visibilities).to be_empty
       end
+
+      it "raises exception if aspects_ids don't contain any applicable aspect identifiers" do
+        bad_ids = [Aspect.ids.max.next, bob.aspects.first.id].map(&:to_s)
+        expect {
+          StatusMessageCreationService.new(alice).create(params.merge(aspect_ids: bad_ids))
+        }.to remain(StatusMessage, :count).and raise_error(StatusMessageCreationService::BadAspectsIDs)
+      end
     end
 
     context "with public" do
diff --git a/spec/shared_behaviors/account_deletion.rb b/spec/shared_behaviors/account_deletion.rb
index d4019937a..25ce9a6d9 100644
--- a/spec/shared_behaviors/account_deletion.rb
+++ b/spec/shared_behaviors/account_deletion.rb
@@ -44,8 +44,6 @@ shared_examples_for "it removes the person associations" do
 end
 
 shared_examples_for "it keeps the person conversations" do
-  RSpec::Matchers.define_negated_matcher :remain, :change
-
   it "remains the person conversations" do
     expect {
       account_removal_method
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index 8cb7fa13b..cb810e975 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -24,6 +24,8 @@ Dir["#{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/shared_behaviors/**/*.rb"].each do |f|
   require f
 end
 
+RSpec::Matchers.define_negated_matcher :remain, :change
+
 ProcessedImage.enable_processing = false
 UnprocessedImage.enable_processing = false