Butterfly Flights Reference

This page is intended to serve as a reference/resource for prospective mentors interested in participating in a Butterfly Flight for the first time, and returning Commanders who have additional questions.

Big thanks to CelesteKara does not match any existing user name, Naveil, OCuin, The Pighead, Truc Linh, and weizhong who contributed advice and suggestions for this page!

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A quick overview of the basics:

• A Butterfly Flight is a monthly mentorship program where experienced reviewers ("commanders") work with 1-2 mentees ("officers") to develop skills in both forum critique and (when applicable) moderation.
• Flights last for two weeks (14 days) and there can be up to six flights per month. Numbers vary depending on site and IRL considerations, as well as commander availability.
• Flights teams pick the front page features for the next month.
• The Flight Commander will work with the officers to determine quality and activity goals for each week of the Flight.
  • A "quality" goal is improvement of a certain critique skill or technique.
  • An "activity" goal is a certain number of posts made in a week.
• Officers may officially recommend forum threads for Commander consideration/greenlighting.
• Officers who successfully complete the Flight will be noted on the Butterfly Roster and granted honorary greenlight privileges.

Brief guidelines for Commanders:

At the start of the flight:
- Determine the first week's quality goal (improving critique skills) and activity goal (how active someone is in the forums) with officer(s).
- Confirm the preferred page type for front page feature (first come, first serve, there will be a thread for signups).
- Ask whether the officer(s) prefers for their critique to be regularly reviewed, or if they would prefer to designate specific critiques for review.
- Ask whether officer(s) want to practice addressing forum etiquette/moderation skills.

During the flight:
- Answer questions from officer(s) as needed.
- Check up on reviews written by officer(s) and offer suggestions for improvement.
- Evaluate first week's goals, set new goals for second week.
- If desired, track reviews written by officer(s) using a sandbox page.

After the flight:
- Determine if goals have been achieved sufficiently so as to consider the Flight successful.
- Choose page for front page feature.
- Contact Zyn with the above information.

FAQ:

Display questions!

As a Commander, how do I…?

Question: What time commitment should I be expecting?

Zyn Answer: It depends on how many officers you choose to mentor and how closely you'll be monitoring them. Personally for one officer I spent maybe 15-30 minutes every 2-3 days answering questions and reviewing feedback given to offer suggestions.

Question: What kind of expectations should I set for crit totals?

Zyn Answer: Typically one concept review per day or one draft review every two days is a solid goal for a Flight. Officers shouldn't be pushing themselves to meet totals; however, they can't receive feedback on their reviewing skills if they review very little.

Question: How do I choose a flight officer?

Zyn Answer: Personally I recommend someone who is already fairly proficient at reviewing (a Flight should not be devoted to teaching basics of critique), familiar with the forums, and pleasant to work with. Check their forum posting history, writing history, and reason for interest in the Flight as noted in the monthly recruitment thread.

Question: How should an officer be instructed on light forum moderation? What should be done if an officer begins to back-seat moderate?

Zyn Answer: Start small. Have the author address immediate things like concept threads that do not follow the required reading template, or draft threads posted by first-time authors without greenlights. If they do well on those and want to practice more, have them practice addressing simple problematic critique (e.g., overtly misleading, vague, or vehement material). Make sure that their focus is on informing the author rather than cementing their own authority. If an officer begins to backseat mod, first post in the forum when the backseat modding is occurring (a quick "hey, this is backseat modding, this person is not a staff member" explanation) and then notify the officer in private messages how they can avoid making overly authoritative posts moving forward. If they continue to backseat mod, notify a disciplinary team member.

Question: How should I coordinate officer efforts? (Should they be directed towards certain types of ideas, drafts, or forum posts? Should these directions change throughout the flight?)

Zyn Answer: Officers should choose which kind of posts to respond to, as they know best which areas of critique they want to improve. I do personally recommend that officers mainly practice with threads that have content they are more immediately interested in, with one or two threads that they find challenging to respond to (since authors sometimes request feedback via PM to reviewers who aren't the best match for the content to be critiqued). Ultimately flights shouldn't feel like a set of assignments, but rather a regular week for reviewers who happen to have mentors to guide them.

Question: How should officer burnout be dealt with?

Zyn Answer: Above all, be kind. Encourage your officer(s) to let you know about their other commitments during the Flight and adjust activity goals if needed. Make it clear that they should not be forcing themselves to participate if they're feeling fatigued. Leaving the Flight is always an option. If they really want to continue practicing, advise them on ways to provide feedback without overexerting themselves. For example, this page on quick draft crits has some tips: http://www.scpwiki.com/zyn-s-crit-tips-iii

What to do if an officer does…?

Question: What should I do if a Flight has ended, and I feel the officer hasn't successfully completed the Flight?

Zyn Answer: Be upfront with the officer about why you feel they have not been successful. Advise them on how to improve should they continue to give critique in the forums, and/or join another Flight in the future. If desired, ask for another staff member to act as a witness/mediator for the discussion. Let the Forum Crit captain know if there are any complications.

Question: What to do if an officer signs up and is recruited but becomes unresponsive?

Zyn Answer: Check in with them via PM every couple of days or so. If they don't respond for a week or more with no explanation/advance notice, they cannot successfully complete the Flight.

Question: How do I step in if I feel that an officer is giving inappropriate crit?

Zyn Answer: Be upfront about your reaction, and give them guidance on how to change their feedback to be appropriate. Take it as a learning opportunity. If the officer reacts badly, notify another staff member/the Forum Crit captain.

Question: How should you respond to changing output from your officer? (Such as a decrease in their output or its quality, or an increase in those same metrics).

Zyn Answer: Let them know what you've noticed, and offer either suggestions or compliments depending on which of the two it is. Remind the officer to take breaks if needed.

What happens if someone has to leave a flight?

Question: What should be done if an officer has to drop out during a Flight?

Zyn Answer: Notify the Forum Crit captain, and let the officer know that it's fine if they have other obligations to prioritize. Note that the Commander will still be allowed to choose the front page feature even if their officer(s) did not complete the Flight successfully.

Question: What should be done if a commander has to drop out during a Flight?

Zyn Answer: Notify the Forum Crit captain and your officers, and we will try to find someone to stand in as a substitute Commander for the rest of the Flight, or postpone the Flight until the next month.

Advice from prior Commanders:

Display advice!

"Communication is key! If you're not communicating with your officers than they don't learn the skills they need to learn!"

[Avoid condescension when you talk to each other, don't force yourself to do big walls of text (as long as it's not a vague crit), avoid elitism and don't push your officers to do Staff work (like the case when someone doesn't have the required template in their idea thread).]

"Engage as much as possible. This isn't a mentorship between an officer and the guide hub, it's a mentorship between an officer and an experienced reviewer. […] as a commander, you should be passing down what you know to someone else. Knowledge exists to be shared, and even those who don't need it may find some use from it."

[…] definitely plan ahead. Check in with your officer(s) ahead of time to figure out or have a concept of what their goals should be and write it out.

Think up of many possible solutions for how to improve certain skills. Everyone learns differently, so it would be good to have a list of experience (what elements helped you to improve in that skill) and what you think would be good solutions for areas of improvement. […]

Get to know your officer(s)! Help them to open up since you might not know if they're shy and not likely to communicate internal conflicts related to the Flight. Talk things out with them if needed, and encourage them to communicate whenever they are in need of something.[…]

Remember to put your health and well-being into consideration! If you think you can no longer run or continue a Flight due to IRL considerations/commitments, let your officers and colleagues/local SCP Wiki staffers know. […]

Log your commandership work so that you'll have references for future Flights. […]

Model off of your favorite mentor(s).

Most important of all… have fun! Flights should be a learning experience for every participant, so try not to stress out over making mistakes. That's how we learn. And of course, don't be afraid to ask questions as a mentor.

[…] know when to put your foot down. If an officer isn't listening and exhibiting unacceptable behavior even after being asked to stop, they're not worth your precious time. It would be difficult to help someone if they're not willing to help themselves to your service. If you ever come across anyone like this, let staff know immediately.

You don't need to micro-manage what your officers do, but staying in contact with them is important so that they don't stray too far from where you'd like to lead them. This can be as easy as firing off a PM every few days to check in on their status, or pinging them on IRC every once in a while. Some officers like to have people checking on their work fairly consistently, while others are much more hands-off and prefer just a review once in a while. Figure out what works best for you and your officer.

Additionally, something that is not talked about enough is the sheer fatigue associated with being a critter, forum or otherwise. Stress the importance of building good crit habits into your officers. Help them streamline their approach to crit so that they don't get burned out from doing line by lines all day. This helps them to avoid burnout, and also builds stronger, more standardized crit. Having a generalized approach and things that you look for also helps to make sure that your own crit stays high quality no matter what draft you're reading.

Officers should feel like they have easy, regular contact with you, but not such that your presence is overbearing or, as Weizhong mentioned, micro-managing. In my flight, I set up an IRC channel specifically for the three of us and had daily checkins in which I reviewed their critique and discussed it with them. Outside of that I was available for questions but I avoided discussing the flight outside of the check-ins unless they brought it up to me […]

When reviewing the critique, I tried to focus on specifics in terms of improvement, i.e. "Try to discuss more examples of how they could improve the clinical tone", or "Their narrative description isn't super clear on the ending, try to discuss that more". Helpful critique is specific […]

I think it's also important to regularly take input from your officers on the structure of the flight, ensuring that they are happy with how it's going and that the structure works for them. Circumstances can change and it's important to ensure that the system works for them across the whole flight and that you can respond to their changing circumstances (for example, if they have to reduce output or contact due to real-life commitments). […]

Try to keep the structure regular but flexible. As I've referenced above and others have too, circumstances can change, so it's important that you can respond to that and keep things flexible without losing the structure or core of the flight. There's no essential way to doing this, but ensuring that you can respond to the concerns of your officers and make alterations where necessary is good.

Links!

• Initial Flights establishment discussion: http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-13142400
• Example O5 Flights announcement thread: http://05command.wikidot.com/forum/t-13271749
• Example mainsite Flights announcement thread: http://www.scpwiki.com/forum/t-13153425
• Butterfly Squad Roster (with flight officers list): http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/butterfly-squad-roster