diff --git a/IkiWiki.pm b/IkiWiki.pm
index 18f9ab3fe..b6a2a3649 100644
--- a/IkiWiki.pm
+++ b/IkiWiki.pm
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ sub defaultconfig () { #{{{
 	wikiname => "wiki",
 	default_pageext => "mdwn",
 	cgi => 0,
-	rcs => 'svn',
+	rcs => '',
 	notify => 0,
 	url => '',
 	cgiurl => '',
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index ce19d779c..3ae22f92c 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -6,8 +6,10 @@ ikiwiki (1.37) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
   * Avoid creating edit links when the cgi url is not known.
   * Avoid displaying discussion links at all, if there's not a discussion
     page, when the cgi url isn't known.
+  * Ikiwiki used to use svn as its RCS by default unless configured otherwise,
+    now it defaults to using no RCS unless configured to do so.
 
- -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Sat, 23 Dec 2006 01:17:54 -0500
+ -- Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>  Sat, 23 Dec 2006 01:51:49 -0500
 
 ikiwiki (1.36) unstable; urgency=low
 
diff --git a/doc/bugs/HTML_is_not_update_nor_created_when_editing_markdown_via_CGI.mdwn b/doc/bugs/HTML_is_not_update_nor_created_when_editing_markdown_via_CGI.mdwn
index d9b18809d..b00dd4621 100644
--- a/doc/bugs/HTML_is_not_update_nor_created_when_editing_markdown_via_CGI.mdwn
+++ b/doc/bugs/HTML_is_not_update_nor_created_when_editing_markdown_via_CGI.mdwn
@@ -28,4 +28,16 @@ If this is documented, sorry I missed it.
 >> I don't see any way in my configuration file for disabling this.
 >> (I should figure out what happened with the subversion commits too...)
 >>
->> --JeremyReed
\ No newline at end of file
+>> --JeremyReed
+
+>>> Defaulting that to svn in a bug. Fixed. In general, there are defaults
+>>> for various things configurable by the config file, but they should not
+>>> cause suprising behavior like this. For example, it defaults to
+>>> supporting discussion pages. (You can see all the defaults near
+>>> the top of `IkiWiki.pm`).
+>>>
+>>> The svn backend would have noticed that your wiki is not in svn, and
+>>> avoided doing anything, BTW.
+>>>
+>>> I've changed the default setting that was making it use svn, so this
+>>> bug is [[bugs/done]] --[[Joey]]