diff --git a/fp-includes/fp-smartyplugins/validate_criteria.notEmpty.php b/fp-includes/fp-smartyplugins/validate_criteria.notEmpty.php
index 0809cc0..2fd043a 100644
--- a/fp-includes/fp-smartyplugins/validate_criteria.notEmpty.php
+++ b/fp-includes/fp-smartyplugins/validate_criteria.notEmpty.php
@@ -34,7 +34,10 @@
  * @param array formvars form var values
  */
 function smarty_validate_criteria_notEmpty($value, $empty, &$params, &$formvars) {
-    return strlen($value) > 0;
+	if(empty($value)) { 
+		return false;
+	} else { 
+		return strlen($value) > 0;
+	}
 }
-
 ?>
diff --git a/fp-plugins/bbcode/inc/stringparser.class.php b/fp-plugins/bbcode/inc/stringparser.class.php
index 2230b03..81b0a18 100755
--- a/fp-plugins/bbcode/inc/stringparser.class.php
+++ b/fp-plugins/bbcode/inc/stringparser.class.php
@@ -298,6 +298,7 @@ class StringParser {
 		$this->_parsing = true;
 		$this->_text = $this->_applyPrefilters($text);
 		$this->_output = null;
+		$this->_text = $this->_text ?? '';
 		$this->_length = strlen($this->_text);
 		$this->_cpos = 0;
 		unset($this->_stack);