I have noted your comments in recent days. It seems that genuine discussion of consulting and career topics on this forum is being hindered by the actions of a few, turning each genuine thread into the opportunity to belittle or whinge.To ensure the forum gets back to addressing professional discussion topics, we'll henceforth be deleting comments that aren't adding anything constructive to the discussions.I hope you see a noticeable improvement in the quality of discussion on the site, so that we can return to a focus on furthering your careers in consulting.Tony RestellTop-Consultant.com

Fully support your decision Tony - however let's not be draconian in our censorship - some of the comments do indeed add a touch of light-heartedness to an otherwise bleak Monday morning. However I appreciate your team policing the fine line between this and the insufferable posts of the few.

Thanks Rich - I appreciate a lot of the wit on here and certainly wouldn't want us to lose the witty comments, just those that are hijacking threads or indeed starting new threads that are pure drivel!Tony RestellTop-Consultant.com

Tony - this is a great move and a real positive step to rescue the value this site can offer if used properly. I echo Rich's point about not being too heavy but but concentrating on removing the drivel or boringly repetitive stuff.

Please go easy on ZBs posts - whilst not always polite, he is very amusing and generally he does have a valid point behind the tirades

I understand the urgent need to reform nature and quality of the discourse that goes on here. However deleting my post on PA strikes me as being overly OTT and censorship heavy. Most of 'my' posts assert a visceral mood that is shared by many working in consultancy and I believe there is thin line between witty, constructive and acerbic and plain rubbish. I think I've always been on the former.ZB

ZB - I am sure there are others who feel posts they have made and had removed were hard done by. It is always a difficult balance when moderating and sometimes the person posting loses. I can't recall what your post was but someone somewhere felt it was inappropriate.

Ironic isn't it that this is now degenerating into a thread about nothing having started as one about forum moderation.

Tony - Why did you delete the thread entitled "Campaign to close this forum"?In that thread, I bitterly complained about the way this forum has been hijacked by a bunch of people who just post rubbish. You deleted it and then started the thread entitled "Forum Moderation", which basically reiterates my opinion. I'm glad anyway that my complaint has compelled you to moderate the forum.

Fed up! - your comments were amongst those that made me decide to take action on this, so thank you for the initial thread. I wanted to flag the issue and the change in approach from our side and that announcement would have been lost had it been left as the umpteenth reply to your original thread.Hope you approve of the more constructive discussions on here in the coming weeks and monthsTony RestellTop-Consultant.com

Tony - Perhaps we need a sticky to outline the FORUM RULES so that contributors know where they stand.I for one fully support this move. We should all recognise that this will take a bit of effort on Top Consultant's part and shows that they are dedicated to keep the forum going. Well done Tony.If done correctly, credibility will be restored and number of hits increase exponentially.Whilst there is some great stuff buried here, I look forward to not having to sift through all the rubbish to find it.Regards,Michael

Tony, the only solution I can see to returning the forum to its “former glory” is to require registration. This could still be anonymous by not requiring e-mail addresses, but would provide a unique user name and password. I would also suggest the addition of “thumbs up” or “best answer” voting, as most forums have, which would allow consistent participants to build up “reputation points”. LinkedIn goes one better and collates the “reputation points” by discussion category. That way a new poster does not have to know that Mars A Day for example clearly works as a headhunter and (shut your ears Mars), clearly knows what he is talking about, particularly in terms of interviews and career progression advice, but (you can open them again) might have all the insight of a chelsea bun when it comes to offering advice on how to develop a Target Operating Model from scratch. To be honest, it would not be difficult to recreate this forum on LinkedIn using its EXISTING functionality, which is a shame as it would remove your captive audience from your main business purpose and income stream of job ads.I have no idea how important the forum is in supporting that income stream, but if it is, then you need to spend some money to improve the functionality of the site, otherwise it is only a matter of time before everyone migrates the discussions to LinkedIn. I don’t think manually deleting the odd comment is either long term viable, nor sufficiently objective. I predict things will get better for a while, then revert to the dross of the last few months.

I agree with Mr Cool (and that includes the Chelsea Bun comment). It is regular contributors - Mr Cool, Cynic, ZB and the others (apologies to all those not mentioned here) - that have been fighting a losing battle to keep the forum on track, sensible and positive. I for one find the insights and experience recounted on this forum invaluable in building up a picture of what and how particular firms are operating and what preoccupies MCs considering a move. Let's get it back to what it was meant to me - and if that takes some draconian regulation from Tony and the team at TC then so be it.

Another advantage of registration is that you will only have one "Mars a day" or "ZB" etc. so you won't get interlopers, troublemakers, glory hunters or the just plain jealous posting under someone else's pseudonym.While "Mars a day" might remain anonymous at least you will be sure which are his (or her?!) posts! (no need for complicated voting credit functionality - each unique user will build up their own reputation as they clearly have done here)

I agree wholeheartedly with that point. There have a number of opportunist, unscrupulous and dishonest charlatans who have used by name to post nonsense. To ensure that this forum retains credibility this practice must stop.ZB

Tony: it’s certainly going to be difficult for you to get the balance right and given that you were accused of censorship quite a few times BEFORE this new approach I fear a more active policy will upset many. The cut and thrust is half the fun. You must have the offenders’ email addresses (unless they are fake): why don’t you tell them to desist or they will be barred?

I'm very pleased with the first week of results. I'm sure regular readers will have noticed a marked change in the forum posts - there are genuine and detailed responses being posted to valid consulting careers questions; you can see from the calibre of those responding that engagement by experienced consultants is picking back up again.I'm happy to take the brunt of policing this - and any flak it may produce - as seeing the forum get back to hosting great content and community has made my week!Tony RestellTop-Consultant.com

To Recruiter Too, I think we can all agree we are adults, reasonbly intelligent, and can dintinguish between witty cut and thrust - and just posting inflamatory nonsense.