diff --git a/realtime/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/realtime/firehose/IrcFirehoseFactory.java b/realtime/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/realtime/firehose/IrcFirehoseFactory.java
index 5e3efa7af4e..b2bdab66e1d 100644
--- a/realtime/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/realtime/firehose/IrcFirehoseFactory.java
+++ b/realtime/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/realtime/firehose/IrcFirehoseFactory.java
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ import org.joda.time.DateTime;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.List;
+import java.util.UUID;
 import java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue;
 
 /**
@@ -146,9 +147,9 @@ public class IrcFirehoseFactory implements FirehoseFactory
           @Override
           public List<String> getAlternativeNicknames()
           {
-            return Lists.newArrayList(nick + "_",
-                                      nick + "__",
-                                      nick + "___");
+            return Lists.newArrayList(nick + UUID.randomUUID(),
+                                      nick + UUID.randomUUID(),
+                                      nick + UUID.randomUUID());
           }
 
           @Override
diff --git a/realtime/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/realtime/firehose/WikipediaIrcDecoder.java b/realtime/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/realtime/firehose/WikipediaIrcDecoder.java
index fc45f5f4e91..262be0c93df 100644
--- a/realtime/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/realtime/firehose/WikipediaIrcDecoder.java
+++ b/realtime/src/main/java/com/metamx/druid/realtime/firehose/WikipediaIrcDecoder.java
@@ -50,8 +50,10 @@ class WikipediaIrcDecoder implements IrcDecoder
   final DatabaseReader geoLookup;
 
   static final Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(
-      "\\x0314\\[\\[\\x0307(.+?)\\x0314\\]\\]\\x034 (.*?)\\x0310.*\\x0302(http.+?)\\x03.+\\x0303(.+?)\\x03.+\\x03 (\\(([+-]\\d+)\\).*|.+) \\x0310(.+)\\x03"
+      ".*\\x0314\\[\\[\\x0307(.+?)\\x0314\\]\\]\\x034 (.*?)\\x0310.*\\x0302(http.+?)" +
+      "\\x03.+\\x0303(.+?)\\x03.+\\x03 (\\(([+-]\\d+)\\).*|.+) \\x0310(.+)\\x03.*"
   );
+
   static final Pattern ipPattern = Pattern.compile("\\d+.\\d+.\\d+.\\d+");
   static final Pattern shortnamePattern = Pattern.compile("#(\\w\\w)\\..*");