diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
index d1f10ac55..a8245f1de 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTING.md
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -22,12 +22,12 @@ The following guidelines for contribution should be followed if you want to subm
 
 * You need a [GitHub account](https://github.com/signup/free)
 * Submit an [issue ticket](https://github.com/ClouDev/CloudBot/issues) for your issue if there is no one yet.
-  * Try to describe the issue and include steps to reproduce if it's a bug.
+    * Try to describe the issue and include steps to reproduce if it's a bug.
 * If you are able and want to fix this, fork the repository on GitHub
 
 ## Make Changes
 
-* In your forked repository, create a topic branch for your upcoming patch. (optional) 
+* In your forked repository, create a topic branch for your upcoming patch. (optional)
 * Make sure you stick to the coding style that is used already.
 * Make use of the [`.editorconfig`](http://editorconfig.org/) file.
 * Make commits that make sense and describe them properly.
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ The following guidelines for contribution should be followed if you want to subm
 
 * Push your changes to a topic branch in your fork of the repository.
 * Open a pull request to the original repository and choose the `python3.4` branch.
-	_Advanced users may use [`hub`](https://github.com/defunkt/hub#git-pull-request) gem for that._
+    _Advanced users may use [`hub`](https://github.com/defunkt/hub#git-pull-request) gem for that._
 * If not done in commit messages (which you really should do) please reference and update your issue with the code changes. But _please do not close the issue yourself_.
 _Notice: You can [turn your previously filed issues into a pull-request here](http://issue2pr.herokuapp.com/)._
 
diff --git a/cloudbot/util/formatting.py b/cloudbot/util/formatting.py
index 4ee7cb102..1357455de 100644
--- a/cloudbot/util/formatting.py
+++ b/cloudbot/util/formatting.py
@@ -266,7 +266,7 @@ def dict_format(args, formats):
             # Check if values can be mapped
             m = f.format(**args)
             # Insert match and number of matched values (max matched values if already in dict)
-            matches[m] = max([matches.get(m, 0), len(re.findall(r'(\{.*?\})', f))])
+            matches[m] = max([matches.get(m, 0), len(re.findall(r'({.*?\})', f))])
         except Exception:
             continue
 
diff --git a/cloudbot/util/textgen.py b/cloudbot/util/textgen.py
index fdc6bab89..6c2b630de 100644
--- a/cloudbot/util/textgen.py
+++ b/cloudbot/util/textgen.py
@@ -45,7 +45,7 @@
 import random
 import re
 
-TEMPLATE_RE = re.compile(r"\{(.+?)\}")
+TEMPLATE_RE = re.compile(r"{(.+?)\}")
 
 
 class TextGenerator(object):
diff --git a/plugins/amazon.py b/plugins/amazon.py
index e29a3ea12..507475a5f 100644
--- a/plugins/amazon.py
+++ b/plugins/amazon.py
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ def amazon(text, reply, _parsed=False):
     try:
         # get the rating
         rating = item.find('i', {'class': 'a-icon-star'}).find('span', {'class': 'a-icon-alt'}).text
-        rating = re.search(r"([0-9]+(?:(?:\.|,)[0-9])?).*5", rating).group(1).replace(",", ".")
+        rating = re.search(r"([0-9]+(?:[.,][0-9])?).*5", rating).group(1).replace(",", ".")
         # get the rating count
         pattern = re.compile(r'(product-reviews|#customerReviews)')
         num_ratings = item.find('a', {'href': pattern}).text.replace(".", ",")
diff --git a/plugins/history.py b/plugins/history.py
index e3e76abfb..39eda614a 100644
--- a/plugins/history.py
+++ b/plugins/history.py
@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ def seen(text, nick, chan, db, event):
     if text.lower() == nick.lower():
         return "Have you looked in a mirror lately?"
 
-    if not re.match("^[A-Za-z0-9_|\^\*\`.\-\]\[\{\}\\\\]*$", text.lower()):
+    if not re.match("^[A-Za-z0-9_|^*`.\-\]\[{\}\\\\]*$", text.lower()):
         return "I can't look up that name, its impossible to use!"
 
     if '_' in text:
diff --git a/plugins/karma.py b/plugins/karma.py
index 5511aebbe..b1bba6371 100644
--- a/plugins/karma.py
+++ b/plugins/karma.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 from cloudbot.util import database
 
 karmaplus_re = re.compile('^.*\+\+$')
-karmaminus_re = re.compile('^.*\-\-$')
+karmaminus_re = re.compile('^.*--$')
 
 karma_table = Table(
     'karma',
diff --git a/plugins/link_announcer.py b/plugins/link_announcer.py
index 78f340e5e..ba058dcdb 100644
--- a/plugins/link_announcer.py
+++ b/plugins/link_announcer.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 from cloudbot.hook import Priority, Action
 
 # This will match any URL, blacklist removed and abstracted to a priority/halting system
-url_re = re.compile(r'https?://(?:[a-zA-Z]|[0-9]|[$-_@.&+~]|[!*\(\),]|(?:%[0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F]))+', re.I)
+url_re = re.compile(r'https?://(?:[a-zA-Z]|[0-9]|[$-_@.&+~]|[!*(),]|(?:%[0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F]))+', re.I)
 
 HEADERS = {
     'Accept-Language': 'en-US,en;q=0.5',
diff --git a/plugins/utility.py b/plugins/utility.py
index 5ae669da7..8dc9a3f72 100644
--- a/plugins/utility.py
+++ b/plugins/utility.py
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@
 
 # helper functions
 
-strip_re = re.compile("(\x03|\x02|\x1f|\x0f)(?:,?\d{1,2}(?:,\d{1,2})?)?")
+strip_re = re.compile("[\u0003\u0002\u001F\u000F](?:,?\d{1,2}(?:,\d{1,2})?)?")
 
 
 def strip(string):
diff --git a/plugins/yelling.py b/plugins/yelling.py
index 7819e1a0b..a112f9ea4 100644
--- a/plugins/yelling.py
+++ b/plugins/yelling.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 
 OPT_IN = ["#yelling"]
 YELL_RE = re.compile('[^a-zA-Z]')
-URL_RE = re.compile('http[s]?://(?:[a-zA-Z]|[0-9]|[$-_@.&+~]|[!*\(\),]|(?:%[0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F]))+')
+URL_RE = re.compile('http[s]?://(?:[a-zA-Z]|[0-9]|[$-_@.&+~]|[!*(),]|(?:%[0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F]))+')
 
 
 @hook.event([EventType.message, EventType.action])