diff --git a/app/models/post.rb b/app/models/post.rb
index 91b2c70f2..c4500a747 100644
--- a/app/models/post.rb
+++ b/app/models/post.rb
@@ -221,14 +221,14 @@ class Post < ActiveRecord::Base
                 user_id: user_id).first.try(:user)
   end
 
-  def self.excerpt(cooked, maxlength = nil)
+  def self.excerpt(cooked, maxlength = nil, options = {})
     maxlength ||= SiteSetting.post_excerpt_maxlength
-    PrettyText.excerpt(cooked, maxlength)
+    PrettyText.excerpt(cooked, maxlength, options)
   end
 
   # Strip out most of the markup
-  def excerpt(maxlength = nil)
-    Post.excerpt(cooked, maxlength)
+  def excerpt(maxlength = nil, options = {})
+    Post.excerpt(cooked, maxlength, options)
   end
 
   # What we use to cook posts
diff --git a/app/serializers/topic_list_item_serializer.rb b/app/serializers/topic_list_item_serializer.rb
index 63cebb1c7..7f9fd5ba7 100644
--- a/app/serializers/topic_list_item_serializer.rb
+++ b/app/serializers/topic_list_item_serializer.rb
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ class TopicListItemSerializer < ListableTopicSerializer
   end
 
   def excerpt
-    object.posts.first.try(:excerpt,200) || nil
+    object.posts.first.try(:excerpt,220, strip_links: true) || nil
   end
 
 end
diff --git a/lib/autospec/runner.rb b/lib/autospec/runner.rb
index e40cae7ae..15ff6969a 100644
--- a/lib/autospec/runner.rb
+++ b/lib/autospec/runner.rb
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ class Autospec::Runner
     Signal.trap("SIGINT") {stop_spork; exit }
 
     puts "Forced polling (slower) - inotify does not work on network filesystems, use local filesystem to avoid" if force_polling
-    
+
     Thread.start do
       Listen.to('.', force_polling: force_polling, filter: /^app|^spec|^lib/, relative_paths: true) do |modified, added, removed|
         process_change([modified, added].flatten.compact)
diff --git a/lib/pretty_text.rb b/lib/pretty_text.rb
index 1b8b2f278..3edbf23a2 100644
--- a/lib/pretty_text.rb
+++ b/lib/pretty_text.rb
@@ -239,14 +239,16 @@ module PrettyText
 
     attr_reader :excerpt
 
-    def initialize(length)
+    def initialize(length,options)
       @length = length
       @excerpt = ""
       @current_length = 0
+      @strip_links = options[:strip_links] == true
     end
 
-    def self.get_excerpt(html, length)
-      me = self.new(length)
+    def self.get_excerpt(html, length, options)
+
+      me = self.new(length,options)
       parser = Nokogiri::HTML::SAX::Parser.new(me)
       begin
         copy = "<div>"
@@ -271,11 +273,13 @@ module PrettyText
             characters("[image]")
           end
         when "a"
-          c = "<a "
-          c << attributes.map{|k,v| "#{k}='#{v}'"}.join(' ')
-          c << ">"
-          characters(c, false, false, false)
-          @in_a = true
+          unless @strip_links
+            c = "<a "
+            c << attributes.map{|k,v| "#{k}='#{v}'"}.join(' ')
+            c << ">"
+            characters(c, false, false, false)
+            @in_a = true
+          end
         when "aside"
           @in_quote = true
       end
@@ -284,8 +288,10 @@ module PrettyText
     def end_element(name)
       case name
       when "a"
-        characters("</a>",false, false, false)
-        @in_a = false
+        unless @strip_links
+          characters("</a>",false, false, false)
+          @in_a = false
+        end
       when "p", "br"
         characters(" ")
       when "aside"
@@ -307,8 +313,8 @@ module PrettyText
     end
   end
 
-  def self.excerpt(html, length)
-    ExcerptParser.get_excerpt(html, length)
+  def self.excerpt(html, max_length, options={})
+    ExcerptParser.get_excerpt(html, max_length, options)
   end
 
 end
diff --git a/spec/components/pretty_text_spec.rb b/spec/components/pretty_text_spec.rb
index 6d9b56977..37c4430ab 100644
--- a/spec/components/pretty_text_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/components/pretty_text_spec.rb
@@ -104,6 +104,11 @@ test
   end
 
   describe "Excerpt" do
+
+    it "should have an option to strip links" do
+      PrettyText.excerpt("<a href='http://cnn.com'>cnn</a>",100, strip_links: true).should == "cnn"
+    end
+
     it "should preserve links" do
       PrettyText.excerpt("<a href='http://cnn.com'>cnn</a>",100).should == "<a href='http://cnn.com'>cnn</a>"
     end