diff --git a/schema.sql b/schema.sql
index 336a63e..79a4f5f 100644
--- a/schema.sql
+++ b/schema.sql
@@ -21,7 +21,8 @@ create table threads (
   title text,       -- string
   last_mod real,    -- floating point unix timestamp (of last post or post edit)
   created real,     -- floating point unix timestamp (when thread was made)
-  reply_count int   -- integer (incremental, starting with 0)
+  reply_count int,  -- integer (incremental, starting with 0)
+  pinned int        -- boolean
 );
 
 
diff --git a/src/db.py b/src/db.py
index f77a647..38d8cb0 100644
--- a/src/db.py
+++ b/src/db.py
@@ -78,6 +78,21 @@ def thread_index(connection):
     return threads
 
 
+def thread_set_pin(connection, thread_id, pin_bool):
+    """
+    Set the pinned status of thread_id to pin_bool.
+    """
+    # can never be too sure :^)
+    pin_bool = bool(pin_bool)
+    connection.execute("""
+        UPDATE threads SET
+        pinned = ?
+        WHERE thread_id = ?
+    """, (pin_bool, thread_id))
+    connection.commit()
+    return pin_bool
+
+
 def thread_create(connection, author_id, body, title):
     """
     Create a new thread and return it.
@@ -91,13 +106,16 @@ def thread_create(connection, author_id, body, title):
     thread_id = uuid1().hex
     scheme = schema.thread(
         thread_id, author_id, title,
-        now, now, -1) # see below for why i set -1 instead of 0
+        now, now, -1, False) # see below for why i set -1 instead of 0
 
     connection.execute("""
         INSERT INTO threads
-        VALUES (?,?,?,?,?,?)
+        VALUES (?,?,?,?,?,?,?)
     """, schema_values("thread", scheme))
     connection.commit()
+    # the thread is initially commited with reply_count -1 so that i can
+    # just pass the message to the reply method, instead of duplicating
+    # its code here. It then increments to 0.
     thread_reply(connection, author_id, thread_id, body, time_override=now)
     # fetch the new thread out of the database instead of reusing the returned
     # objects, just to be 100% sure what is returned is what was committed
diff --git a/src/schema.py b/src/schema.py
index a6b6d5f..7529c46 100644
--- a/src/schema.py
+++ b/src/schema.py
@@ -127,7 +127,8 @@ def thread(
         title,        # string
         last_mod,     # floating point unix timestamp (of last post or post edit)
         created,      # floating point unix timestamp (when thread was made)
-        reply_count): # integer (incremental, starting with 0)
+        reply_count,  # integer (incremental, starting with 0)
+        pinned):      # boolean
 
     return {
         "thread_id":   thread_id,
@@ -136,6 +137,7 @@ def thread(
         "last_mod":    last_mod,
         "created":     created,
         "reply_count": reply_count,
+        "pinned":      bool(pinned)
     }
 
 
diff --git a/src/utils.py b/src/utils.py
index 4f4ad0b..a193cb4 100644
--- a/src/utils.py
+++ b/src/utils.py
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ def schema_values(scheme, obj):
     elif scheme == "thread":
         return ordered_keys(obj,
             "thread_id", "author", "title",
-            "last_mod", "created", "reply_count")
+            "last_mod", "created", "reply_count", "pinned")
 
     elif scheme == "message":
         return ordered_keys(obj,