[bug 911846] Switch the repr to a unicode

This fixes errors in production kicked up by the error handling
for whatever errors the error handling was handling.
Merge pull request #1600 from willkg/repr-911846

[bug 911846] Switch the repr to a unicode
[bug 911858] Link to user's profile from avatar and name
[bug 907224] Fixed advanced search with products error
[bug 897987] Persona for Get Involved pages