vadding

Vadding is a verb which has become synonymous with urban exploration. The origin of the word comes from MIT where, for a time in the late 1970s, some of the student population was helplessly addicted to a computer game called ADVENT. In an attempt to hide the game executable from system administrators who would delete it if found, the file was initially renamed ADV. As the system administrators became aware of this, the filename was changed again, this time to the permutation VAD. The verb vad appeared, meaning to play the game. Likewise, vadders were people who spent a lot of time playing the game. In a bizarre segue, vadding and vadders began to refer to people who undertook actions in real life similar to those in the game. Since ADVENT was all about exploring underground tunnels, the popular MIT geek sport of roof & tunnel hacking became known as vadding. Today, the word vadding is rarely heard at MIT, and usually only by old-timers. "Roof and tunnel hacking" has returned as the preferred descriptive term. Those who participate in it generally refer to it simply as "hacking." Vadding and hacking are both terms born out of MIT jargon that, once they left the MIT community, began to mean something entirely different.

Vadding

See also