diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/bold_italics_dialect.js b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/bold_italics_dialect.js
index 890b380d803..eb90914ae22 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/bold_italics_dialect.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/bold_italics_dialect.js
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ var replaceMarkdown = function(match, tag) {
 };
 
 replaceMarkdown('**', 'strong');
+replaceMarkdown('__', 'strong');
 replaceMarkdown('*', 'em');
 replaceMarkdown('_', 'em');
 
diff --git a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/dialect.js b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/dialect.js
index d5befd2315e..e4202f4620d 100644
--- a/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/dialect.js
+++ b/app/assets/javascripts/discourse/dialects/dialect.js
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ Discourse.Dialect = {
 
       var contents = args.emitter.call(this, between);
       if (contents) {
-        return [endPos + startLength + 1, contents];
+        return [endPos+stop.length, contents];
       }
     };
 
diff --git a/test/javascripts/components/markdown_test.js b/test/javascripts/components/markdown_test.js
index 2370f0b0a6d..3450e457e4c 100644
--- a/test/javascripts/components/markdown_test.js
+++ b/test/javascripts/components/markdown_test.js
@@ -18,12 +18,14 @@ var cookedOptions = function(input, opts, expected, text) {
 test("basic cooking", function() {
   cooked("hello", "<p>hello</p>", "surrounds text with paragraphs");
   cooked("**evil**", "<p><strong>evil</strong></p>", "it bolds text.");
+  cooked("__bold__", "<p><strong>bold</strong></p>", "it bolds text.");
   cooked("*trout*", "<p><em>trout</em></p>", "it italicizes text.");
   cooked("_trout_", "<p><em>trout</em></p>", "it italicizes text.");
   cooked("***hello***", "<p><strong><em>hello</em></strong></p>", "it can do bold and italics at once.");
   cooked("word_with_underscores", "<p>word_with_underscores</p>", "it doesn't do intraword italics");
   cooked("hello \\*evil\\*", "<p>hello *evil*</p>", "it supports escaping of asterisks");
   cooked("hello \\_evil\\_", "<p>hello _evil_</p>", "it supports escaping of italics");
+  cooked("brussel sproutes are *awful*.", "<p>brussel sproutes are <em>awful</em>.</p>", "it doesn't swallow periods.");
 });
 
 test("Traditional Line Breaks", function() {