diff --git a/ietf/idtracker/templatetags/ietf_filters.py b/ietf/idtracker/templatetags/ietf_filters.py
index e42994981..9dead8c4a 100644
--- a/ietf/idtracker/templatetags/ietf_filters.py
+++ b/ietf/idtracker/templatetags/ietf_filters.py
@@ -466,6 +466,13 @@ def user_roles_json(user):
                 roles[g.name] = True
     return mark_safe(simplejson.dumps(roles))
 
+@register.filter
+def textify(text):
+    text = re.sub("</?b>", "*", text)
+    text = re.sub("</?i>", "/", text)
+    # There are probably additional conversions we should apply here
+    return text
+    
 def _test():
     import doctest
     doctest.testmod()