Let's go to repr. Beware, people, this may invalidate certain databases.

plugins/FunDB.py

@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ class DbiFunDBDB(object):
             __metaclass__ = dbi.Record
             __fields__ = [
                 'by',
-                ('text', str),
+                'text',
                 ]
             
     def __init__(self):

plugins/Note.py

@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ class DbiNoteDB(dbi.DB):
             'notified',
             'read',
             'public',
-            ('text', str)
+            'text',
             ]
 
     def setRead(self, id):

src/dbi.py

@@ -348,7 +348,7 @@ class Record(type):
                     setattr(self, name, defaults[name])
 
         def serialize(self):
-            return csv.join([str(getattr(self, name)) for name in fields])
+            return csv.join([repr(getattr(self, name)) for name in fields])
 
         def deserialize(self, s):
             unseenRecords = sets.Set(fields)