 | This is a humorous essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors and is made to be humorous. This page is not one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. This essay isn't meant to be taken seriously. |
 | This page in a nutshell: WikiButterflies are editors who start out doing small fixes infrequently, sometimes skipping editing for months to years, only to reemerge as full-time, highly accomplished contributors. |
| WikiButterfly Temporal range: Palaeocene–Present,
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| The WikiButterfly is a glorious specimen now, so don't be fooled by its earlier incarnation as a lowly caterpillar | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Suborder: | Rhopalocera |
A WikiButterfly is a very proficient editor who starts out as a caterpillar. It first creates an account, then immediately starts crawling around mainspace, endeavoring to make small fixes to random articles that it comes across as it reads them. At this early stage, the user ensconces itself in an editing cocoon, where activity is so infrequent that it might not even make a single edit for many months, possibly even years. At this phase of its life, it can be compared to the WikiLurker, except that the WikiButterfly may not necessarily be so invested in the project.
But then, something happens. The WikiButterfly will suddenly emerge from its cocoon, flap its wings, and then begin to flutter around wildly from one article to the next, even starting to land on different talk pages and noticeboards, flaunting its glorious wings for all of the other WikiFauna to see. Eventually, it becomes so proficient at its daily tasks that it starts to attract the notice of an admin, who admires its beauty and seeks to add it to their collection. When that happens, this page should be brought to the attention of the WikiPolice when they bring up the subject of the WikiButterfly's early editing history. Because what seems at first glance to be disinterestedness may be just that—but it was in the past. It has now caught the bug, and will be with us fluttering around for a long time to come!
- Phases
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A new account unobtrusively feeding on a typo -
It likes the place and wants to hang out here -
The user has temporarily vanished from recent changes -
This bug has now caught the bug
