diff --git a/actions/newgroup.php b/actions/newgroup.php
index 42d488e54e..fb7f6347d4 100644
--- a/actions/newgroup.php
+++ b/actions/newgroup.php
@@ -200,8 +200,6 @@ class NewgroupAction extends Action
             }
         }
 
-        $mainpage = common_local_url('showgroup', array('nickname' => $nickname));
-
         $cur = common_current_user();
 
         // Checked in prepare() above
@@ -215,7 +213,6 @@ class NewgroupAction extends Action
                                             'location' => $location,
                                             'aliases'  => $aliases,
                                             'userid'   => $cur->id,
-                                            'mainpage' => $mainpage,
                                             'local'    => true));
 
         common_redirect($group->homeUrl(), 303);
diff --git a/classes/User_group.php b/classes/User_group.php
index 68f61cb7f4..d402ed4773 100644
--- a/classes/User_group.php
+++ b/classes/User_group.php
@@ -487,6 +487,7 @@ class User_group extends Memcached_DataObject
         }
 
         // MAGICALLY put fields into current scope
+        // @fixme kill extract(); it makes debugging absurdly hard
 
         extract($fields);
 
@@ -498,6 +499,9 @@ class User_group extends Memcached_DataObject
             // fill in later...
             $uri = null;
         }
+        if (empty($mainpage)) {
+            $mainpage = common_local_url('showgroup', array('nickname' => $nickname));
+        }
 
         $group->nickname    = $nickname;
         $group->fullname    = $fullname;