diff --git a/URLNotesGrabberCORE/DataAccess.cs b/URLNotesGrabberCORE/DataAccess.cs
index 3ae316d..d8bf849 100644
--- a/URLNotesGrabberCORE/DataAccess.cs
+++ b/URLNotesGrabberCORE/DataAccess.cs
@@ -873,7 +873,7 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
                               INNER JOIN Notes N ON N.PostID = P.PostID AND N.RootBlogName = P.BlogName
                               WHERE P.NotFound = 0
                                 AND N.type = 'reply' 
-                                AND (N.replyText IS NULL OR N.replyText = '' OR N.replyText = '.')
+                                AND (N.replyText IS NULL OR N.replyText = '')
                               GROUP BY P.BlogName, P.PostID
                               ORDER BY LatestTimestamp ASC";
 
@@ -1479,10 +1479,10 @@ namespace URLNotesGrabberCORE
 
                 //string sql = "UPDATE Notes SET replyText = @replyText WHERE rootBlogName = @rootBlogName AND PostID = @PostID AND noteBlogName = @noteBlogName AND TimeStamp = @TimeStamp AND Type = 'reply'";
                 // Match on (noteBlogName, TimeStamp ±5s) only - a reply by a given blog at a given timestamp is the same reply across the original post and every reblog of it, so this fans out across reblog chains in one shot. Tolerance absorbs the ~1s drift between what -collect stored and what mode=conversation returns now.
-                string sql = "UPDATE Notes SET replyText = @replyText, DateModified = @dateModified WHERE noteBlogName = @noteBlogName AND ABS(TimeStamp - @TimeStamp) <= 5 AND Type = 'reply' AND IFNULL(replyText, '.') <> @replyText";
+                string sql = "UPDATE Notes SET replyText = @replyText, DateModified = @dateModified WHERE noteBlogName = @noteBlogName AND ABS(TimeStamp - @TimeStamp) <= 5 AND Type = 'reply' AND (replyText IS NULL OR replyText = '')";
                 using (SQLiteCommand command = new SQLiteCommand(sql, connection))
                 {
-                    command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@replyText", replyText ?? ".");
+                    command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@replyText", replyText ?? "?");
                     command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@dateModified", DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss"));
                     command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@rootBlogName", rootBlogName);
                     command.Parameters.AddWithValue("@PostID", postID);