vadding /vad'ing/ n.
[from VAD, a permutation of ADV (i.e., ADVENT), used to avoid a particular admin's continual search-and-destroy sweeps for
the game] A leisure-time activity of certain hackers involving
the covert exploration of the `secret' parts of large buildings
-- basements, roofs, freight elevators, maintenance crawlways,
steam tunnels, and the like. A few go so far as to learn
locksmithing in order to synthesize vadding keys. The verb is `to
vad' (compare phreaking; see also
hack, sense 9). This term dates from
the late 1970s, before which such activity was simply called
`hacking'; the older usage is still prevalent at MIT.
The most extreme and dangerous form of vadding is `elevator
rodeo', a.k.a. `elevator surfing', a sport played by wrasslin'
down a thousand-pound elevator car with a 3-foot piece of string,
and then exploiting this mastery in various stimulating ways
(such as elevator hopping, shaft exploration, rat-racing, and the
ever-popular drop experiments). Kids, don't try this at home! See
also hobbit (sense 2).