diff --git a/msgfmt b/msgfmt
index 3140f57..9937e01 100755
--- a/msgfmt
+++ b/msgfmt
@@ -44,6 +44,9 @@ done
 # format the commit message, stopping at the diff (if any)
 awk '/^diff --git/ { exit } { print }' \
   | sed ':a;N;$!ba;
+    # handle <>-delimited links (strip delimiters)
+    s#<\([fh]ttps\?://[^ ]\+\)>#\1#g;
+
     # escaping
     s/\&/\&amp;/g;
     s/</\&lt;/g;
@@ -54,10 +57,9 @@ awk '/^diff --git/ { exit } { print }' \
     s#\n\n  \+\(\([^\n]\+\n\(\n  \+\)\?\)\+\)#<blockquote>\1</blockquote>#g
 
     # unfortunately, non-greedy matches make it difficult to exclude punctuation
-    # at the end of a link, so we will not be handling it here (since links
-    # should always be in the footer as references (ideally), this should not
-    # happen
+    # at the end of a link, so we will handle it in a separate expression
     s#[fh]ttps\?://[^]\n )]\+#<a href="&">&</a>#g;
+    s#<a href="\([^"]\+\)\([.;,!]\)">\([^<]\+\).</a>#<a href="\1">\3</a>\2#g;
 
     # reference definitions (footnotes)
     s#\n\[\([0-9]\+\)\]#</p><p id="ref-\1">&#g;