Javascript Regular Expression Odd Behavior?

[Ratchetr]

I believe the problem is here:
(^|\s)

Each match is created by finding the space between tags. (Since space matches [^A-Za-z0-9_]).

But that consumes the space!. When it loops back around to find the next match, the next character is going to be the #, which doesn't match (^|\s). So it keeps scanning until it finds a space, which skips over the next item.

I believe if you change (^|\s) to (\s)* it will work for your example. But I'm not positive it catches all scenarios, you'll need to test a bit.