diff -r 1face8964965 -r 753e5ebabe7d hgext3rd/topic/__init__.py
--- a/hgext3rd/topic/__init__.py	Fri Jan 05 22:50:21 2018 +0100
+++ b/hgext3rd/topic/__init__.py	Wed Dec 27 23:51:18 2017 +0530
@@ -1009,16 +1009,7 @@
                     user = marker.metadata().get('user', user)
                     maxtime = rt
 
-        # Making the username more better
-        username = None
-        if user:
-            # user is of form "abc <abc@xyz.com>"
-            username = user.split('<')[0]
-            if not username:
-                # user is of form "<abc@xyz.com>"
-                username = user[1:-1]
-            username = username.strip()
-
+        username = stack.parseusername(user)
         topicuser = (t, username)
 
         if trevs: