whack-a-mole
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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.

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