import re


def preprocess(text_string):
    """
    Accepts a text string and replaces:
    1) urls with URLHERE
    2) lots of whitespace with one instance
    3) mentions with MENTIONHERE

    This allows us to get standardized counts of urls and mentions
    Without caring about specific people mentioned
    """
    space_pattern = '\s+'
    giant_url_regex = ('http[s]?://(?:[a-zA-Z]|[0-9]|[$-_@.&+]|'
        '[!*\(\),]|(?:%[0-9a-fA-F][0-9a-fA-F]))+')
    mention_regex = '@[\w\-]+'
    parsed_text = re.sub(space_pattern, ' ', text_string)
    parsed_text = re.sub(giant_url_regex, '', parsed_text)
    parsed_text = re.sub(mention_regex, '', parsed_text)
    return parsed_text