diff --git a/app/controllers/requests_controller.rb b/app/controllers/requests_controller.rb
index 810b850f1aad10604857959e76c309d8e5dfad62..b58258076ebe3b6569c5c86613f4749b9acc277a 100644
--- a/app/controllers/requests_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/requests_controller.rb
@@ -26,13 +26,16 @@ class RequestsController < ApplicationController
   
   def create
     url = diaspora_url(params[:request][:destination_url])
-    @request = current_user.send_friend_request_to(url)
+    @request = current_user.send_friend_request_to(url) unless url.include?('@')
     if @request
       flash[:notice] = "a friend request was sent to #{@request.destination_url}"
       redirect_to requests_url
     else
-      
-      flash[:error] = "you have already friended this person"
+      if url.include? '@'
+        flash[:error] = "no diaspora seed found with this email!"
+      else
+        flash[:error] = "you have already friended this person"
+      end
       @request = Request.new
       render :action => 'new'
     end
diff --git a/app/helpers/requests_helper.rb b/app/helpers/requests_helper.rb
index c0bf4a1d8bf4432a4e5da25d17e844dbd687cb68..4d3c37ed380631f04466da98113be4aa78ac5d2f 100644
--- a/app/helpers/requests_helper.rb
+++ b/app/helpers/requests_helper.rb
@@ -1,10 +1,16 @@
 module RequestsHelper
   def diaspora_url(identifier)
     if identifier.include? '@'
-      f = Redfinger.finger(identifier)
-      identifier = f.links.each{|x|  return x.href if x.rel =='http://joindiaspora.com/seed_location'}
+      
+      begin
+        f = Redfinger.finger(identifier)
+        good_links = f.links.map{|x|  return x.href if x.rel =='http://joindiaspora.com/seed_location'}
+        identifier = good_links.first unless good_links.first.nil?
+      rescue
+        
+      end
     end
+
     identifier
   end
-
 end
diff --git a/config/sprinkle/packages/ruby.rb b/config/sprinkle/packages/ruby.rb
index 644781e7a3d670ac320210c96c90efb5e3416bd7..e90b4e516343478980e982c8fe3db13adc81294a 100644
--- a/config/sprinkle/packages/ruby.rb
+++ b/config/sprinkle/packages/ruby.rb
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ end
 
 package :diaspora_dependencies do
 	description 'random dependencies'
-	apt %w(libxslt1.1 libxslt1-dev libxml2 libgpgme11-dev)
+	apt %w(libxslt1.1 libxslt1-dev libxml2 libgpgme11-dev )
 end
 #package :diaspora do
 #	description 'Diaspora'