diff --git a/R/wikia_admin.R b/R/wikia_admin.R
index 10b7b1f..22b0b02 100644
--- a/R/wikia_admin.R
+++ b/R/wikia_admin.R
@@ -67,21 +67,25 @@ generate.admin.addrm <- function (logevents, current.admins) {
   
   # another function to handle processing the ancients:
   parse.ancient <- function (i, d) {
-    user <- sub('^.*?:', '', d[i,"title"])
-    comment <- d[i, "comment"]
-    change.time <- d[i, "timestamp"]
+      user <- sub('^.*?:', '', d[i,"title"])
+      log.comment <- d[i, "comment"]
+      change.time <- d[i, "timestamp"]
 
-    added <- unlist(strsplit(unlist(strsplit(comment, '(\\+|\\=)')), ', '))
+      log.comment <- as.character(log.comment)
+      added <- unlist(strsplit(unlist(strsplit(log.comment, '(\\+|\\=)')), ', '))
+      
+      if(is.null(added)){
+          added <- ''
+      }
+      ## clean any leadin, trailing whitespace
+      added <- gsub("^\\s+|\\s+$", "", added)
 
-    # clean any leadin, trailing whitespace
-    added <- gsub("^\\s+|\\s+$", "", added)
-
-    data.frame(user=user,
-               role=added,
-               action="added",
-               timestamp=change.time,
-               era="ancient",
-               stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
+      data.frame(user=user,
+                 role=added,
+                 action="added",
+                 timestamp=change.time,
+                 era="ancient",
+                 stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
   }
 
   # if there are any ancients, we parse them
@@ -109,10 +113,15 @@ generate.admin.addrm <- function (logevents, current.admins) {
     return(o)
   }
 
-  current.admins.parsed <- do.call("rbind",
-                                   lapply(1:dim(current.admins)[1],
-                                          parse.current.admins, current.admins))
-    
+    if(dim(current.admins)[1] > 0){
+        current.admins.parsed <- do.call("rbind",
+                                         lapply(1:dim(current.admins)[1],
+                                                parse.current.admins, current.admins))
+    }
+    else {
+        current.admins.parsed <- data.frame(user=character(),role=character())
+    }
+
   # select pre-ancients as people who have a given right *today* but
   # were never seen as having it added
   is.pre.ancients <- function (i, d, combined) {
@@ -155,11 +164,13 @@ generate.admin.addrm <- function (logevents, current.admins) {
 
   pre.ancients <- rbind(pre.ancients, combined.removed)
   
-  # give them the earliest ancient timestamp minus 1 day
-  pre.ancients$action <- "added"
-  pre.ancients$timestamp <- as.POSIXct("2000-01-01 00:00:00") # min(combined$timestamp) - 60 * 1440
-  pre.ancients$era <- "pre.ancient"
-  
+    if(nrow(pre.ancients) > 0){
+        ## give them the earliest ancient timestamp minus 1 day
+        pre.ancients$action <- "added"
+        pre.ancients$timestamp <- as.POSIXct("2000-01-01 00:00:00") # min(combined$timestamp) - 60 * 1440
+        pre.ancients$era <- "pre.ancient"
+    }
+
   # and then add the pre.ancients to the 
   combined <- rbind(combined, pre.ancients)