We've seen an increase in 'call-out' styled posts on the subreddit. I have also contributed to this, so I'm not just waggling my finger at everyone else.

Generally, the intent of these posts is to call attention to a specific issue or topic, and to highlight how 'not' to do something. Here's a bunch of things that other people have done. Don't do those things. This can be useful for people who are either unaware of the mistakes they are making, or who respond well to being whipped.

However, these type of posts put the poster in the position of judge and executioner, and the audience as jury. Whatever it is the poster is or is not doing, at least it's better than those people that they call out. I might suck, but at least I don't suck as much as these guys. It is fun to write these type of posts, as you can take a selection of the worst examples from OYS and parade them in front of everyone. Look at these guys. They're terrible! But it is 'they' that are terrible, not 'I'. And these posts are full of 'you' statements.

Similar to 'she' statements, 'you' statements direct the locus of control onto someone else. And we want to generally be encouraging 'I' statements. Posts with lots of 'I' statements follow a format of 'this is what I did, this is why it worked for me'. Posts with lots of 'You' statements are generally 'You should do what I say, it worked for me'. 'I' statement posts allow a reader to go 'Why did they do this thing? Why did it work for them? Could it work for me? How do I test it?'. This is the foundation of what MRP was built upon. People identifying problems, trying things to fix them, and then reporting on those results.

The point of this post is to try encourage more 'I' statement posts. Field reports are a great example of this. Even people just starting out can write a post that:

  • Articulates the problem they were trying to solve,

  • Actions they took to solve the problem, and

  • Whether or not their actions had the desired outcome

I'd like to encourage those who are actively trying to make changes to write field reports. Why? Well, read this - I'm not going to explain shit that others have already explained better than I can.

With that said, I'll be actively moderating any more 'call-out' posts as I think we've got enough already.

Yes, I am aware of the irony of writing a call-out post on call-out posts.