diff --git a/Zotlabs/Lib/Activity.php b/Zotlabs/Lib/Activity.php
index e09a8fc0b..af3fa3340 100644
--- a/Zotlabs/Lib/Activity.php
+++ b/Zotlabs/Lib/Activity.php
@@ -1416,7 +1416,7 @@ class Activity {
 		if(is_array($act->obj)) {
 			$content = self::get_content($act->obj);
 		}
-
+			
 		$s['owner_xchan']  = $act->actor['id'];
 		$s['author_xchan'] = $act->actor['id'];
 
@@ -1577,6 +1577,11 @@ class Activity {
 		$item['aid'] = $channel['channel_account_id'];
 		$item['uid'] = $channel['channel_id'];
 
+		if(! ( $item['author_xchan'] && $item['owner_xchan'])) {
+			logger('owner or author missing.');
+			return;
+		}
+
 		if($channel['channel_system']) {
 			if(! \Zotlabs\Lib\MessageFilter::evaluate($item,get_config('system','pubstream_incl'),get_config('system','pubstream_excl'))) {
 				logger('post is filtered');
@@ -1610,8 +1615,16 @@ class Activity {
 			);
 			if(! $p) {
 				$a = (($fetch_parents) ? self::fetch_and_store_parents($channel,$observer_hash,$act,$item) : false);
-				// if no parent was fetched, turn into a top-level post
-				if(! $a) {
+				if($a) {
+					$p = q("select parent_mid from item where mid = '%s' and uid = %d limit 1",
+						dbesc($item['parent_mid']),
+						intval($item['uid'])
+					);
+				}
+				else {
+
+					// if no parent was fetched, turn into a top-level post
+
 					// @TODO we maybe could accept these is we formatted the body correctly with share_bb()
 					// or at least provided a link to the object
 					if(in_array($act->type,[ 'Like','Dislike' ])) {
diff --git a/Zotlabs/Lib/ActivityStreams.php b/Zotlabs/Lib/ActivityStreams.php
index 1025a2bf0..e7a5ad1f7 100644
--- a/Zotlabs/Lib/ActivityStreams.php
+++ b/Zotlabs/Lib/ActivityStreams.php
@@ -82,23 +82,28 @@ class ActivityStreams {
 			if($this->ldsig) {
 				$this->signer = $this->get_compound_property('creator',$this->ldsig);
 				if($this->signer && $this->signer['publicKey'] && $this->signer['publicKey']['publicKeyPem']) {
-					$this->sigok = \Zotlabs\Lib\LDSignatures::verify($this->data,$this->signer['publicKey']['publicKeyPem']);
+					$this->sigok = LDSignatures::verify($this->data,$this->signer['publicKey']['publicKeyPem']);
 				}
 			}
 
+			if(! $this->obj) {
+				$this->obj = $this->data;
+				$this->type = 'Create';
+				if(! $this->actor) {
+					$this->actor = $this->get_actor('attributedTo',$this->obj);
+				}
+			}
+			
 			if($this->obj && $this->obj['actor'])
 				$this->obj['actor'] = $this->get_actor('actor',$this->obj);
 			if($this->tgt && $this->tgt['actor'])
 				$this->tgt['actor'] = $this->get_actor('actor',$this->tgt);
 
-
-			if(! $this->obj) {
-				$this->obj = $this->data;
-				$this->type = 'Create';
-			}
-			
 			$this->parent_id = $this->get_property_obj('inReplyTo');
 			if(! $this->parent_id) {
+				$this->parent_id = $this->get_property_obj('inReplyTo',$this->obj);
+			}
+			if(! $this->parent_id) {				
 				$this->parent_id = $this->obj['id'];
 			}
 		}
@@ -252,9 +257,11 @@ class ActivityStreams {
 
 		$x = z_fetch_url($url, true, $redirects,
 			[ 'headers' => [ 'Accept: application/activity+json, application/ld+json; profile="https://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams"' ]]);
-		if($x['success'])
+		if($x['success']) {
+			$y = json_decode($x['body'],true);
+			logger('returned: ' . json_encode($y,JSON_PRETTY_PRINT|JSON_UNESCAPED_SLASHES));
 			return json_decode($x['body'], true);
-
+		}
 		return null;
 	}
 
diff --git a/Zotlabs/Module/Inbox.php b/Zotlabs/Module/Inbox.php
index be97becef..7ced0e4aa 100644
--- a/Zotlabs/Module/Inbox.php
+++ b/Zotlabs/Module/Inbox.php
@@ -67,6 +67,20 @@ class Inbox extends Controller {
 				$channels = q("SELECT * from channel where channel_id in ( SELECT abook_channel from abook left join xchan on abook_xchan = xchan_hash WHERE xchan_network = 'activitypub' and xchan_hash = '%s' ) and channel_removed = 0 ",
 					dbesc($observer_hash)
 				);
+				if(! $channels) {
+					$channels = [];
+				}
+
+				$parent = $AS->parent_id;
+				if($parent) {
+					//this is a comment - deliver to everybody who owns the parent
+	 				$owners = q("SELECT * from channel where channel_id in ( SELECT uid from item where mid = '%s' ) ",
+						dbesc($parent)
+					);
+					if($owners) {
+						$channels = array_merge($channels,$owners);
+					}
+				}
 			}
 
 			if($channels === false)