Gafiate

This article is about the glossary term. You may be looking for the Star Trek: DS9 story Getting Away From It All.

Synonyms:	Getting Away From It All, Fell Away from It All, Hiatus
See also:	fandom flounce, Forced Away from It All
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Gafiate is an initialism, made from Getting Away From It All, that media fandom took from science fiction fandom. At first it meant escaping from the mundane world via fanac, but now it means leaving fandom and fannish activity. When a fan says they're gafiating, they mean they're no longer playing fannishly. Thankfully some fans come back from gafiating, reactivate their deleted LJ or rejoin their mailing lists, and come back and play.

There also exists the (less common) Fell Away from It All (FAFIATE) that also refers to a fan who has turned her or his interest away from fandom.

If a fan leaves fandom not by choice it is sometimes referred to with the parallel Forced Away from It All. (the initialisms of the latter two however can be confusing)

Additional Reading/Meta

• "410 Gone": Infocide in Open Content Communities by Joseph Reagle, posted 5.2012, accessed 5.2012
• Ephemeria and fandom, ^{Archived version} by aelfgifu (2005)
• Ownership and the (im) permanence of a fic after it's been posted., ^{Archived version} by profshallowness (2005)