diff --git a/apps/follow/app.js b/apps/follow/app.js
index f3cfb7a9..4308045e 100644
--- a/apps/follow/app.js
+++ b/apps/follow/app.js
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ async function following(db, id) {
 		f = {users: [], sequence: 0, version: k_version};
 	}
 	f.users = new Set(f.users);
-	await ssb.sqlStream(
+	await ssb.sqlAsync(
 		"SELECT "+
 		"  sequence, "+
 		"  json_extract(content, '$.contact') AS contact, "+
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ async function getAbout(db, id) {
 	if (!f || f.version != k_version) {
 		f = {about: {}, sequence: 0, version: k_version};
 	}
-	await ssb.sqlStream(
+	await ssb.sqlAsync(
 		"SELECT "+
 		"  sequence, "+
 		"  content "+
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ async function getAbout(db, id) {
 
 async function getSize(db, id) {
 	let size = 0;
-	await ssb.sqlStream(
+	await ssb.sqlAsync(
 		"SELECT (SUM(LENGTH(content)) + SUM(LENGTH(author)) + SUM(LENGTH(id))) AS size FROM messages WHERE author = ?1",
 		[id],
 		function (row) {
diff --git a/apps/ssb/tf-app.js b/apps/ssb/tf-app.js
index 9ab2b428..e444ef93 100644
--- a/apps/ssb/tf-app.js
+++ b/apps/ssb/tf-app.js
@@ -133,7 +133,11 @@ class TfElement extends LitElement {
 		`, []))[0].max_row_id;
 		let result = await this.following_deep_internal(ids, depth, blocking, cache.last_row_id, cache.following, max_row_id);
 		cache.last_row_id = max_row_id;
-		await tfrpc.rpc.databaseSet('following', JSON.stringify(cache));
+		let store = JSON.stringify(cache);
+		/* 2023-02-20: Exceeding message size. */
+		if (store.length < 512 * 1024) {
+			await tfrpc.rpc.databaseSet('following', store);
+		}
 		return [result, cache.following];
 	}
 
diff --git a/apps/ssb/tf-message.js b/apps/ssb/tf-message.js
index 39648254..ae9551c8 100644
--- a/apps/ssb/tf-message.js
+++ b/apps/ssb/tf-message.js
@@ -400,6 +400,11 @@ class TfMessageElement extends LitElement {
 				`;
 			} else if (content.type === 'pub') {
 				return small_frame(html`
+				<style>
+					span {
+						overflow-wrap: anywhere;
+					}
+				</style>
 				<span>
 					<div>
 						🍻 <tf-user .users=${this.users} id=${content.address.key}></tf-user>
diff --git a/apps/ssb/tf-news.js b/apps/ssb/tf-news.js
index d9c03de8..e05fbcfe 100644
--- a/apps/ssb/tf-news.js
+++ b/apps/ssb/tf-news.js
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ class TfNewsElement extends LitElement {
 		return recursive_sort(roots, true);
 	}
 
-	async load_and_render(messages) {
+	load_and_render(messages) {
 		let messages_by_id = this.process_messages(messages);
 		let final_messages = this.finalize_messages(messages_by_id);
 		return html`
@@ -156,8 +156,7 @@ class TfNewsElement extends LitElement {
 	}
 
 	render() {
-		let messages = this.load_and_render(this.messages || []);
-		return html`${until(messages, html`<div>Loading placeholders...</div>`)}`;
+		return this.load_and_render(this.messages || []);
 	}
 }
 
diff --git a/core/core.js b/core/core.js
index 0ebb51c3..5fcf87e4 100644
--- a/core/core.js
+++ b/core/core.js
@@ -704,7 +704,7 @@ async function blobHandler(request, response, blobId, uri) {
 				} catch {
 				}
 				if (apps.delete(appName)) {
-					database.set('apps', JSON.stringify([...apps]));
+					database.set('apps', JSON.stringify([...apps].sort()));
 				}
 				database.remove('path:' + appName);
 			} else {
diff --git a/src/ssb.c b/src/ssb.c
index e474e331..ee990710 100644
--- a/src/ssb.c
+++ b/src/ssb.c
@@ -2031,7 +2031,6 @@ tf_ssb_t* tf_ssb_create(uv_loop_t* loop, JSContext* context, const char* db_path
 {
 	tf_ssb_t* ssb = tf_malloc(sizeof(tf_ssb_t));
 	memset(ssb, 0, sizeof(*ssb));
-	ssb->verbose = true;
 	if (context)
 	{
 		ssb->context = context;