diff --git a/content.py b/content.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ab269dbc2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/content.py
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+__filename__ = "content.py"
+__author__ = "Bob Mottram"
+__license__ = "AGPL3+"
+__version__ = "0.0.1"
+__maintainer__ = "Bob Mottram"
+__email__ = "bob@freedombone.net"
+__status__ = "Production"
+
+import os
+import commentjson
+
+def addMentions(baseDir: str,httpPrefix: str, \
+                nickname: str,domain: str,content: str) -> str:
+    """ Replaces plaintext mentions such as @nick@domain into html
+    by matching against known following accounts
+    """
+    if content.startswith('<p>'):
+        return content
+    wordsOnly=content.replace(',',' ').replace(';',' ').replace('.',' ').replace(':',' ')
+    words=wordsOnly.split(' ')
+    replaceMentions={}
+    followingFilename=baseDir+'/accounts/'+nickname+'@'+domain+'/following.txt'
+    if not os.path.isfile(followingFilename):
+        return content
+    with open(followingFilename, "r") as f:
+        following = f.readlines()
+    for wordStr in words:
+        if wordStr.startswith('@'):
+            if len(wordStr)>1:
+                possibleHandle=wordStr[1:]
+                if '@' in possibleHandle:
+                    possibleNickname=possibleHandle.split('@')[0]
+                    possibleDomain=possibleHandle.split('@')[1]
+                    replaceFound=False
+                    for follow in following:
+                        if follow.replace('\n','')==possibleHandle:
+                            replaceMentions[wordStr]="<span class=\"h-card\"><a href=\""+httpPrefix+"://"+possibleDomain+"/@"+possibleNickname+"\" class=\"u-url mention\">@<span>"+possibleNickname+"</span></a></span>"
+                            replaceFound=True
+                            break
+                    if not replaceFound:
+                        # fall back to a best effort match if an exact one is not found
+                        for follow in following:
+                            if follow.startsWith(possibleNickname+'@'):
+                                replaceDomain=follow.replace('\n','').split('@')[1]
+                                replaceMentions[wordStr]="<span class=\"h-card\"><a href=\""+httpPrefix+"://"+replaceDomain+"/@"+possibleNickname+"\" class=\"u-url mention\">@<span>"+possibleNickname+"</span></a></span>"
+                                replaceFound=True
+                                break
+    # do the mention replacements
+    for wordStr,replaceStr in replaceMentions.items():
+        content=content.replace(wordStr,replaceStr)
+    content=content.replace('\n','</p><p>')
+    return '<p>'+content+'</p>'
+