diff --git a/app/controllers/application_controller.rb b/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
index c789833e..32d0a869 100644
--- a/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/application_controller.rb
@@ -285,7 +285,7 @@ class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base
 
   def set_zindex_counter
     # this counter can be used to handle the IE z-index bug
-    @z_index_counter = 1000
+    @z_index_counter = 500
   end
   
 end
diff --git a/public/stylesheets/standard.css b/public/stylesheets/standard.css
index 5b2b17df..19291cc7 100644
--- a/public/stylesheets/standard.css
+++ b/public/stylesheets/standard.css
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@ body.preferences div#input_box {
     background-color: #000;
     color: #eee;
     width: 100%;
-    z-index:101;
+    z-index:501;
 }
 
 #date {
@@ -579,7 +579,7 @@ span.tag a:hover {
 
 div#message_holder {
     position: absolute;
-    z-index: 100;
+    z-index: 502;
     left: 60%;
     top: 30px;
     right: 0px;