diff --git a/webclient/app-directive.js b/webclient/app-directive.js
index d788475f46..c1ba0af3a9 100644
--- a/webclient/app-directive.js
+++ b/webclient/app-directive.js
@@ -41,18 +41,44 @@ angular.module('matrixWebClient')
         }
     };
 }])
-.directive('elastic', [ // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17772260/textarea-auto-height
-    '$timeout',
-    function($timeout) {
-      return {
+.directive('asjson', function() {
+    return {
         restrict: 'A',
-        link: function($scope, element) {
-          var resize = function() {
-            return element[0].style.height = "" + element[0].scrollHeight + "px";
-          };
-          element.on("blur keyup change", resize);
-          $timeout(resize, 10);
+        require: 'ngModel',
+        link: function (scope, element, attrs, ngModelCtrl) {
+            function isValidJson(model) {
+                var flag = true;
+                try {
+                    angular.fromJson(model);
+                } catch (err) {
+                    flag = false;
+                }
+                return flag;
+            };
+
+            function string2JSON(text) {
+                try {
+                    var j = angular.fromJson(text);
+                    ngModelCtrl.$setValidity('json', true);
+                    return j;
+                } catch (err) {
+                    //returning undefined results in a parser error as of angular-1.3-rc.0, and will not go through $validators
+                    //return undefined
+                    ngModelCtrl.$setValidity('json', false);
+                    return text;
+                }
+            };
+
+            function JSON2String(object) {
+                return angular.toJson(object, true);
+            };
+
+            //$validators is an object, where key is the error
+            //ngModelCtrl.$validators.json = isValidJson;
+
+            //array pipelines
+            ngModelCtrl.$parsers.push(string2JSON);
+            ngModelCtrl.$formatters.push(JSON2String);
         }
-      };
     }
-]);;
+});
diff --git a/webclient/app.js b/webclient/app.js
index 099e2170a0..8d9b662ee9 100644
--- a/webclient/app.js
+++ b/webclient/app.js
@@ -31,7 +31,8 @@ var matrixWebClient = angular.module('matrixWebClient', [
     'eventStreamService',
     'eventHandlerService',
     'infinite-scroll',
-    'ui.bootstrap'
+    'ui.bootstrap',
+    'monospaced.elastic'
 ]);
 
 matrixWebClient.config(['$routeProvider', '$provide', '$httpProvider',
diff --git a/webclient/index.html b/webclient/index.html
index 35c8051298..d8b9c95353 100644
--- a/webclient/index.html
+++ b/webclient/index.html
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
     <script type='text/javascript' src="js/ui-bootstrap-tpls-0.11.2.js"></script>
     <script type='text/javascript' src='js/ng-infinite-scroll-matrix.js'></script>
     <script type='text/javascript' src='js/autofill-event.js'></script>
+    <script type='text/javascript' src='js/elastic.js'></script>
     <script src="app.js"></script>
     <script src="config.js"></script>
     <script src="app-controller.js"></script>
diff --git a/webclient/room/room-controller.js b/webclient/room/room-controller.js
index fcbcd75364..ce513990f2 100644
--- a/webclient/room/room-controller.js
+++ b/webclient/room/room-controller.js
@@ -1018,6 +1018,13 @@ angular.module('RoomController', ['ngSanitize', 'matrixFilter', 'mFileInput'])
     };
 
     $scope.openRoomInfo = function() {
+        var stateFilter = $filter("stateEventsFilter");
+        var stateEvents = stateFilter($scope.events.rooms[$scope.room_id]);
+        // The modal dialog will 2-way bind this field, so we MUST make a deep
+        // copy of the state events else we will be *actually adjusing our view
+        // of the world* when fiddling with the JSON!! Apparently parse/stringify
+        // is faster than jQuery's extend when doing deep copies.
+        $scope.roomInfoStateEvents = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(stateEvents));
         var modalInstance = $modal.open({
             templateUrl: 'roomInfoTemplate.html',
             controller: 'RoomInfoController',
@@ -1040,7 +1047,9 @@ angular.module('RoomController', ['ngSanitize', 'matrixFilter', 'mFileInput'])
     console.log("Displaying room info.");
 
     $scope.submit = function(event) {
-        console.error("submit >>> " + JSON.stringify(event));
+        if (event.content) {
+            console.error("submit >>> " + JSON.stringify(event));
+        }
     };
 
     $scope.dismiss = $modalInstance.dismiss;
diff --git a/webclient/room/room.html b/webclient/room/room.html
index cc79d6b778..627918223a 100644
--- a/webclient/room/room.html
+++ b/webclient/room/room.html
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
     <script type="text/ng-template" id="roomInfoTemplate.html">
         <div class="modal-body">
             <table class="room-info">
-            <tr ng-repeat="(key, event) in events.rooms[room_id] | stateEventsFilter" class="room-info-event">
+            <tr ng-repeat="(key, event) in roomInfoStateEvents" class="room-info-event">
                 <td class="room-info-event-meta" width="30%">
                     <span class="monospace">{{ key }}</span>
                     <br/>
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
                     </button>
                 </td>
                 <td class="room-info-event-content" width="70%">
-                    <textarea class="room-info-textarea-content" elastic ng-model="event.content | json"></textarea> 
+                    <textarea class="room-info-textarea-content" msd-elastic ng-model="event.content" asjson></textarea> 
                 </td>
             </tr>
             </table>