diff --git a/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_adultfanfictionorg.py b/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_adultfanfictionorg.py
index 8baf8273..4acb861b 100644
--- a/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_adultfanfictionorg.py
+++ b/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_adultfanfictionorg.py
@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ from .. import exceptions as exceptions
 
 # py2 vs py3 transition
 from ..six import text_type as unicode
-from ..six import ensure_text
 from ..six.moves.urllib.error import HTTPError
 
 from .base_adapter import BaseSiteAdapter,  makeDate
@@ -338,7 +337,7 @@ class AdultFanFictionOrgAdapter(BaseSiteAdapter):
             ##There is also a double <br/>, so we have to fix that, then remove the leading and trailing '-:-'.
             ##They are always in the same order.
             ## EDIT 09/26/2016: Had some trouble with unicode errors... so I had to put in the decode/encode parts to fix it
-            liMetadata = ensure_text(lc2).replace('\n','').replace('\r','').replace('\t',' ').replace('  ',' ').replace('  ',' ').replace('  ',' ')
+            liMetadata = unicode(lc2).replace('\n','').replace('\r','').replace('\t',' ').replace('  ',' ').replace('  ',' ').replace('  ',' ')
             liMetadata = stripHTML(liMetadata.replace(r'<br/>','-:-').replace('<!-- <br /-->','-:-'))
             liMetadata = liMetadata.strip('-:-').strip('-:-').encode('utf-8')
             for i, value in enumerate(liMetadata.decode('utf-8').split('-:-')):
diff --git a/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_fireflyfansnet.py b/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_fireflyfansnet.py
index b5a6676a..a6abba78 100644
--- a/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_fireflyfansnet.py
+++ b/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_fireflyfansnet.py
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ import re
 import sys
 # py2 vs py3 transition
 from ..six import text_type as unicode
-from ..six import ensure_text
 from ..six.moves.urllib.error import HTTPError
 
 from .base_adapter import BaseSiteAdapter, makeDate
@@ -134,7 +133,7 @@ class FireFlyFansNetSiteAdapter(BaseSiteAdapter):
         # which is usualy FireFly on this site, but I'm going to get them
         # anyway.a
         category = soup.find('span', {'id': 'MainContent_txtItemDetails'})
-        category = stripHTML(ensure_text(category).replace(b"\xc2\xa0", ' '))
+        category = stripHTML(unicode(category).replace(u"\xc2\xa0", ' '))
         metad = category.split('    ')
         for meta in metad:
             if ":" in meta:
diff --git a/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_lotrgficcom.py b/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_lotrgficcom.py
index 3ac0cc06..d1e32d81 100644
--- a/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_lotrgficcom.py
+++ b/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_lotrgficcom.py
@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@ from .. import exceptions as exceptions
 
 # py2 vs py3 transition
 from ..six import text_type as unicode
-from ..six import ensure_text
 from ..six.moves.urllib.error import HTTPError
 
 from .base_adapter import BaseSiteAdapter,  makeDate
@@ -287,7 +286,7 @@ class LOTRgficComAdapter(BaseSiteAdapter):
             #<br/>
             #</p>
         ## we'll have to remove the non-breaking spaces to get this to work.
-        metad = ensure_text(metad).replace(b"\xc2\xa0",'').replace('\n','')
+        metad = unicode(metad).replace(u"\xc2\xa0",'').replace('\n','')
         for txt in metad.split('<br/>'):
             if 'Challenges:' in txt:
                 txt = txt.replace('Challenges:','').strip()
diff --git a/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_wwwarea52hkhnet.py b/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_wwwarea52hkhnet.py
index 8dce5df5..b49503f1 100644
--- a/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_wwwarea52hkhnet.py
+++ b/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_wwwarea52hkhnet.py
@@ -33,7 +33,6 @@ from .. import exceptions as exceptions
 
 # py2 vs py3 transition
 from ..six import text_type as unicode
-from ..six import ensure_text
 from ..six.moves.urllib.error import HTTPError
 
 from .base_adapter import BaseSiteAdapter,  makeDate
@@ -192,7 +191,7 @@ class WWWArea52HKHNetAdapter(BaseSiteAdapter):
 
             ## I've seen a non-breaking space in some of the storyblocks
             ## so we are going to remove them.
-            series =  stripHTML(ensure_text(series.renderContents()).replace(b"\xc2\xa0",'')).strip()
+            series =  stripHTML(unicode(series.renderContents()).replace(u"\xc2\xa0",'')).strip()
             if len(series) > 0:
                 self.story.setMetadata('series',series)
 
diff --git a/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_wwwutopiastoriescom.py b/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_wwwutopiastoriescom.py
index a62c8d8a..1f7882ef 100644
--- a/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_wwwutopiastoriescom.py
+++ b/fanficfare/adapters/adapter_wwwutopiastoriescom.py
@@ -41,7 +41,6 @@ from .. import exceptions as exceptions
 
 # py2 vs py3 transition
 from ..six import text_type as unicode
-from ..six import ensure_text
 from ..six.moves.urllib.error import HTTPError
 from ..six.moves.urllib.parse import quote
 
@@ -148,7 +147,7 @@ class WWWUtopiastoriesComAdapter(BaseSiteAdapter):
 
 
         for detail in soup.findAll('li'):
-            det = ensure_text(detail).replace(b"\xc2\xa0",'')
+            det = unicode(detail).replace(u"\xc2\xa0",'')
             heading = stripHTML(det).split(' - ')[0]
             text = stripHTML(det).replace(heading+' - ','')
             if 'Author' in heading: