diff --git a/apps/feed_import/models.py b/apps/feed_import/models.py
index a1d4c86f2..25b8410bb 100644
--- a/apps/feed_import/models.py
+++ b/apps/feed_import/models.py
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@ import datetime
 import mongoengine as mongo
 import pickle
 import base64
-from io import StringIO
 from oauth2client.client import Error as OAuthError
 from xml.etree.ElementTree import Element, SubElement, Comment, tostring
 from lxml import etree
diff --git a/apps/rss_feeds/icon_importer.py b/apps/rss_feeds/icon_importer.py
index 0716046bd..053356645 100644
--- a/apps/rss_feeds/icon_importer.py
+++ b/apps/rss_feeds/icon_importer.py
@@ -4,17 +4,17 @@ import numpy
 import scipy
 import scipy.misc
 import scipy.cluster
-import urllib.parse
 import struct
 import operator
 import gzip
 import datetime
 import requests
+import codecs
 import http.client
 from PIL import BmpImagePlugin, PngImagePlugin, Image
 from socket import error as SocketError
 from boto.s3.key import Key
-from io import StringIO
+from io import BytesIO
 from django.conf import settings
 from apps.rss_feeds.models import MFeedPage, MFeedIcon
 from utils.facebook_fetcher import FacebookFetcher
@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ class IconImporter(object):
         elif settings.BACKED_BY_AWS.get('pages_on_s3') and self.feed.s3_page:
             key = settings.S3_CONN.get_bucket(settings.S3_PAGES_BUCKET_NAME).get_key(self.feed.s3_pages_key)
             compressed_content = key.get_contents_as_string()
-            stream = StringIO(compressed_content)
+            stream = BytesIO(compressed_content)
             gz = gzip.GzipFile(fileobj=stream)
             try:
                 content = gz.read()
@@ -299,7 +299,7 @@ class IconImporter(object):
             return None, None
 
         try:
-            icon_file = StringIO(icon)
+            icon_file = BytesIO(icon)
             image = Image.open(icon_file)
         except (IOError, ValueError):
             return None, None
@@ -381,12 +381,14 @@ class IconImporter(object):
         # Find the most frequent color, based on the counts.
         index_max = scipy.argmax(counts)
         peak = codes.astype(int)[index_max]
-        color = ''.join(chr(c) for c in peak).encode('hex')
+        print(f" ---> Color: {peak}")
+        color = codecs.decode(''.join(chr(c) for c in peak), 'hex')
+        print(f" ---> Color: {color} {peak}")
 
         return color[:6]
 
     def string_from_image(self, image):
-        output = StringIO()
+        output = BytesIO()
         image.save(output, 'png', quality=95)
         contents = output.getvalue()
         output.close()
diff --git a/apps/social/models.py b/apps/social/models.py
index 097422ab6..8ea887be5 100644
--- a/apps/social/models.py
+++ b/apps/social/models.py
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ from utils.story_functions import truncate_chars, strip_tags, linkify, image_siz
 from utils.image_functions import ImageOps
 from utils.scrubber import SelectiveScriptScrubber
 from utils import s3_utils
-from io import StringIO
+from io import BytesIO
 
 try:
     from apps.social.spam import detect_spammers
@@ -2328,11 +2328,11 @@ class MSharedStory(mongo.DynamicDocument):
                 continue
             req = requests.get(image_source, headers=headers, stream=True)
             try:
-                datastream = StringIO(req.content)
+                datastream = BytesIO(req.content)
                 width, height = ImageOps.image_size(datastream)
             except IOError as e:
                 logging.debug(" ***> Couldn't read image: %s / %s" % (e, image_source))
-                datastream = StringIO(req.content[:100])
+                datastream = BytesIO(req.content[:100])
                 _, width, height = image_size(datastream)
             # if width <= 16 or height <= 16:
             #     continue
diff --git a/utils/feed_fetcher.py b/utils/feed_fetcher.py
index 63f4cf56c..ed8e81a81 100644
--- a/utils/feed_fetcher.py
+++ b/utils/feed_fetcher.py
@@ -919,7 +919,7 @@ class Dispatcher:
     @timelimit(10)
     def calculate_feed_scores_with_stories(self, user_subs, stories):
         for sub in user_subs:
-            silent = False if self.options['verbose'] >= 2 else True
+            silent = False if getattr(self.options, 'verbose', 0) >= 2 else True
             sub.calculate_feed_scores(silent=silent, stories=stories)
             
     def add_jobs(self, feeds_queue, feeds_count=1):
diff --git a/utils/image_functions.py b/utils/image_functions.py
index c89701dc5..fbc380717 100644
--- a/utils/image_functions.py
+++ b/utils/image_functions.py
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 from PIL import Image
 from PIL import ImageOps as PILOps
 from PIL.ExifTags import TAGS
-from io import StringIO
+from io import BytesIO
 from vendor import reseekfile
 
 PROFILE_PICTURE_SIZES = {
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ class ImageOps:
         This must happen in this function because PIL is transforming the 
         original as it works."""
         
-        image_file = StringIO(image_body)
+        image_file = BytesIO(image_body)
         try:
             image = Image.open(image_file)
         except IOError:
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ class ImageOps:
                                method=Image.ANTIALIAS, 
                                centering=(0.5, 0.5))
         
-        output = StringIO()
+        output = BytesIO()
         if format.lower() == 'jpg':
             format = 'jpeg'
         image.save(output, format=format, quality=95)