The Fall of the Gatto Forum

Rome did not fall; it gradually declined and assimilated into other cultures. The same is true of the once mighty Gatto Forums. There was a time when it was the premier forum online for jugglers to talk and have a sense of community and fun while discussing juggling. Topics ranged from backcrosses to Sponge Bob, but it was always nice to log on and see what was going on in the juggling world. No more. We may never be able to put an exact date on when the Gatto Forum began its decline. Was it the banning of certain members, Color changes, Dave Altman as Moderator, or maybe the creation of the private area? Whatever the combination may have been, one thing is certain; the Gatto Forum no longer exists.

A couple of months ago a thread was started on rec.juggling discussing why people did and did not visit the Gatto Forums. I spoke up strongly to defend the forum, after all it was my home, the one place online where I really felt comfortable talking with other jugglers. Whenever I go to a festival I find it easy to pick out my friends, because more than likely we started talking through the Gatto Forums and then through instant messenger. Yet, now I feel almost no allegiance. Very little makes me click the forum link under my bookmark tab. Where has the sudden lack of interest arisen from on my part? There certainly is no lack of a desire to juggle. I can juggle better now than I could at any point during my tenure on the forum. So allow me to take a look at different problems I see with the forum at the moment.

Banned Members

I admit that I fully supported the banning of Carey. He was annoying, obnoxious and added very little to juggling discussion. Still, I find it difficult to flip past Sponge Bob on TV if I’m feeling bored. But it was not his expulsion that annoyed me, rather it was when John Nations found himself kicked off the forum. Yes, they let him back on, but it seemed such a trivial argument and came at a time when many of us thought the forum was getting too strict. The foundation of the Forum has always been held in its motto: “where the pros go to talk juggling”? That’s very nice and all, but who seriously would believe that an online forum would not invite just as many annoying 12 year olds as dedicated professionals? In fact while the forum has become looser in more recent times, a couple of months ago there was a notable member, Joe Showers, who left the forum for many reasons. I could not help but sympathize with him on certain aspects. Even though I was one of the longest active members on the board, I was conscious while posting that any post could be the one that might accidentally offend someone and get myself banned. That does not facilitate free discussion and talk in an online community. It is completely legitimate for people to be disciplined if they make comments such as “Anthony Gatto is a terrible human being” but actual opinions about juggling should never have been limited.

Anthony Gatto

Anthony is one of my favorite jugglers. When it comes to ability and performance ability, I believe that he has no rival. When speaking with someone at Philly Fest this past weekend and was asked who I thought the world’s best juggler was, I found myself biting my tongue. Considering the fact that the person questioning me was Vova’s girlfriend I found it difficult to not give him credit; however I knew in my heart the true answer. Vova is great, but Anthony can juggle 7 clubs longer than Vova can even imagine, with a club balanced on his forehead. There is no way to devalue Anthony Gatto. It is one of my absolute goals in life to see him perform and shake his hand before I die, but unfortunately the novelty of Anthony Gatto has worn itself out. Two years ago the forum was a much tighter knit community. There were much fewer members and it was easier for Gatto to respond and connect with the forum members. I will never forget posting admittedly terrible videos, and yet having Anthony Gatto watch them and comment and give me advice. It was as though Tiger Woods had commented on my golf swing. Nowadays this simply is not possible. Videos are posted by the boat load and Anthony simply has given up on watching the vast majority of them. Furthermore it seems like every other day some new member asks the same old questions about siteswaps or juggling as an art which forces Anthony to sound like a broken record. It is no longer such a big deal with he does make a response, it has become commonplace. Sadly, it is taken for granted. The internet juggling community is no longer thankful for his presence; instead it is much more popular to attack him.

Dave Altman

Ok, honestly, does anybody know who Dave Altman is? Where did he come from? What does he do? The only description we generally get is a wheelchair dwelling Anthony Gatto fanboy. So why is he the moderator? The issue at hand seems to be whether or not the forum should have a moderator. I think that it should either have a couple so that it’s not a biased source, or not at all. The forum survived just fine without Altman, and if he never signed on again, we would continue to survive. A moderator other than Anthony is simply just not necessary. This is not an attack on Dave Altman as a person I do not know him well enough to speak of him as a person, rather I feel that we should either have a couple Moderators to balance out his views, or we shouldn’t have any at all.

Private Area

Thankfully, this was done away with, but I feel as though the damage was done while it existed. It excluded many members who could not understand why they would not be entitled to access. It made the forum have an exclusive membership to it that was unnecessary.

I could go on and on about why the Gatto Forum has declined to the point of non-existence, but nothing I can say will change what has happened. I will continue to use the forum even though it is barely a shell of the forum I used to love. When you sign in and make your next post, just be mindful of one crucial fact: you are no longer posting on the Gatto Forum, you are posting on Juggling Talk.