FWIW, my guideline for moderating is that I will only do it if I am prepared not to state my own opinions. If I really want to talk about the topic, I won't enjoy moderating: I'll have a hard time balancing between not letting other people talk, and saying nothing at all in an attempt to avoid that.
I've done the "OK, the other panelists and the audience get to talk and I don't" style of moderation a few times. Two of those were panels where we hadn't had a moderator assigned: Once was at the 1995 Worldcon, where one panelist was trying to be the only one talking: I grabbed the reins, cut off the person who thought "panel" meant "monologue," and called on the other two panelists and the audience. That was a nothing-to-lose situation: I wasn't going to get a say anyhow, and it felt like interrupting to say "Sandra, what do you think?" would go over better than interrupting to talk about my opinions.
The other was at a Minicon, where I lost track of time, walked into my panel slightly late, and rysmiel smiled at me and said "you're moderating." Of the five of us, I was probably the best choice to moderate, but advance notice would have helped.
(I've also been an emergency drop-in moderator at Wiscon: that was interesting, because I wasn't expected to know anything about the topic, just direct traffic and make sure everyone got a say. As with a lot of last-minute substitutions, it's not as good as having an informed and prepared moderator, but the theory was that it was better than no moderator at all.)
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Date: 2017-08-08 10:52 pm (UTC)I've done the "OK, the other panelists and the audience get to talk and I don't" style of moderation a few times. Two of those were panels where we hadn't had a moderator assigned: Once was at the 1995 Worldcon, where one panelist was trying to be the only one talking: I grabbed the reins, cut off the person who thought "panel" meant "monologue," and called on the other two panelists and the audience. That was a nothing-to-lose situation: I wasn't going to get a say anyhow, and it felt like interrupting to say "Sandra, what do you think?" would go over better than interrupting to talk about my opinions.
The other was at a Minicon, where I lost track of time, walked into my panel slightly late, and
(I've also been an emergency drop-in moderator at Wiscon: that was interesting, because I wasn't expected to know anything about the topic, just direct traffic and make sure everyone got a say. As with a lot of last-minute substitutions, it's not as good as having an informed and prepared moderator, but the theory was that it was better than no moderator at all.)