diff --git a/rhodecode/__init__.py b/rhodecode/__init__.py
--- a/rhodecode/__init__.py
+++ b/rhodecode/__init__.py
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@
 import sys
 import platform
 
-VERSION = (1, 3, 0)
+VERSION = (1, 3, 1)
 __version__ = '.'.join((str(each) for each in VERSION[:4]))
 __dbversion__ = 5  # defines current db version for migrations
 __platform__ = platform.system()
diff --git a/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py b/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py
--- a/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py
+++ b/rhodecode/lib/__init__.py
@@ -232,6 +232,7 @@ def safe_str(unicode_, to_encoding=None)
     :returns: str object
     """
     
+    # if it's not basestr cast to str
     if not isinstance(unicode_, basestring):
         return str(unicode_)