whack
= W =
whacker
whack-a-mole n.
[from the carnival game which involves
quickly and repeatedly hitting the heads of mechanical moles with a
mallet as they pop up from their holes.] 1. The practice of
repeatedly causing spammers' throwaway accounts and drop boxes
to be terminated. 2. After sense 1 became established in the
mid-1990s the term passed into more generalized use, and now is
commonly found in such combinations as `whack-a-mole windows';
the obnoxious pop-up advertisement windows spawned in flocks when
you surf to sites like Angelfire or Lycos.
--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.