diff --git a/source/de/anomic/crawler/CrawlEntry.java b/source/de/anomic/crawler/CrawlEntry.java
index 07afa0e13..d8756a873 100755
--- a/source/de/anomic/crawler/CrawlEntry.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/crawler/CrawlEntry.java
@@ -104,7 +104,6 @@ public class CrawlEntry {
         assert appdate != null;
         assert url != null;
         assert initiator != null;
-        assert initiator.length() > 0 : "initiator of '"+ url +"' is empty";
         assert referrerhash != null;
         this.initiator     = initiator;
         this.url           = url;
diff --git a/source/de/anomic/crawler/IndexingStack.java b/source/de/anomic/crawler/IndexingStack.java
index 8f87f47c0..e22b89b9f 100644
--- a/source/de/anomic/crawler/IndexingStack.java
+++ b/source/de/anomic/crawler/IndexingStack.java
@@ -318,7 +318,7 @@ public class IndexingStack {
         }
 
         public String initiator() {
-            return (initiator == null) ? "" : initiator;
+            return (initiator == null) ? "------------" : initiator;
         }
         
         public yacySeed initiatorPeer() {