> > A good moderator can help address that (you can get halfway there by > > just reminding people "ask questions, don't make statements or comments; > > make sure your question benefits the whole room". > > That is a very strange point! I am more than grateful for comments that > are NOT questions, pointing me to different work, previous work, other > approaches, failures.
I'm also very welcoming to other things that aren't questions, they are usually good points and I get to comment on that after if I want to. > What is the point of restricting one to questions? I mean, yes, one can > rephrase everything as a question: > "What is your work's relation to XXXX?" > but that's not the point. > > Why only questions are considered good and comments/remarks not is > something that escapes my understanding - and experience - completely. The times when I saw the "please don't go to the mic if it's not a question" was when there were women speaking, and I think I understand why they would want that and I'm ok with it*. But yes, It shouldn't be a general rule, just if the speaker want to (but I don't think anybody suggested being a general rule anyway). * Not that I'm ok only with this specific case, I'm trying to give an example on why somebody would not want non-questions and why this wasn't a general case. -- Samuel Henrique <samueloph>
