

Mt.Gox does not mean "Mount" Gox - theromi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mtgox#History

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Levtastic
Hacker News says Mt. Gox doesn't mean "Mount Gox", and cites Wikipedia.

Wikipedia says the name was originally "Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange"
and cites The Verge.

The Verge says the same and cites... Hacker News.

I still believe it, but circular citation is often cause to raise an eyebrow
or two!

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shiftpgdn
Here is something with a bit of substance:
[http://web.archive.org/web/20070817170606/http://mtgox.com/g...](http://web.archive.org/web/20070817170606/http://mtgox.com/gwt/mtgox.php)

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FooBarWidget
That only proves that the domain was used for something else in the past. So
what?

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TazeTSchnitzel
The page's title is "MTG Online Exchange" and refers to itself as Mt. Gox and
MTGOX.COM. It's fairly clear they are the same entity.

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pyre
What I don't get is that if it's an acronym for "Magic the Gathering Online
eXchange," then why do they write it as "Mt. Gox?" Wouldn't that translate to,
"Magic the. Gathering Online eXchange?"

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Magic the Gathering is often abbreviated to MtG.

~~~
sjs382
I think he's asking why they had the ". " in the middle of the name. It would
make sense if Magic The Gathering was often abbreviated as Mt.G but that seems
unlikely.

~~~
TazeTSchnitzel
Well, "MtGox" could be read "Mt. Gox", it's probably intentional that they
made it also sound like the name of a mountain.

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lmm
It does now. Etymology can be fascinating, but eventually weight of consensus
will shift a word to mean what it looks like it means (in a process that's
oddly similar to bitcoin's consensus on the transaction history)

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SeanDav
The word _"forte"_ has undergone this change. The actual correct pronunciation
of it is _"fort"_ as in a sturdy structure used for defence.

I have only ever heard it pronounced correctly twice, people typically say it
as _"fortay"_. This has now become so common that some dictionaries are
showing it as a valid pronunciation.

Language is always evolving, which is great.

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deepblueocean
I don't like to be a pedant, but what the hell.

Your belief about which is the "correct" pronunciation depends on whether you
believe the "correct" etymology is French or Italian. It appears to me that
people agree that the word came into English from French earlier, but also
that (at least in 'murica) people have settled on the other pronunciation.

It's not that there's a correct pronunciation that got corrupted, as you
suggest. There are two legitimate derivations of this word with different
pronunciations and one has won out.

By the way, the word in French would be pronounced \ˈfȯt\, which is a common
usage in Britain. And it refers not to a fort (which is the Italian etymology
for "a strong point") but rather to the part of a sword between the middle and
the hilt.

Source: I like to read about usage and etymology. Sadly my dictionary of
classical word origins suggests that _forte_ comes from _fortis_ in Latin,
which (while ultimately true) doesn't reflect either later usage or
pronunciation.

~~~
SeanDav
You are mistaken. There IS a version of "forte" that is correctly pronounced
"fortay" and that is the musical term for loud, which is Italian.

The correct pronunciation of "forte" as in an area of strength or speciality
is "fort". Older dictionaries will give this as the correct pronunciation but
more modern and especially online dictionaries sometimes give "fortay" as an
alternate pronunciation.

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DanBC
You want to call it Mount, because otherwise people will say 'em tee' which
sounds close to 'empty', and that has negative connotations when talking about
money.

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mocko
I think the poster is hinting that having the largest trading platform for a
(formerly) $1bn economy based on an RPG trading card site is not wise.

The events on mtgox in the last few days are irritating but not all that
surprising. Bitcoin as a protocol is still solid but traders need to take
their business to a less amateurishly run platform. Mtgox already has several
competitors (Bitstamp seem good) but a shock like this was required to
overcome the critical mass they had.

As an aside - it's fascinating to watch a new financial system being built
from the ground up. Through the regular disasters in the Bitcoin ecosystem I'm
starting to see why parts of the 'real' banking world function the way they
do.

~~~
yxhuvud
Trading platforms evolve depending on the needs of the marketplace. It is not
like there are plenty of existing trading platforms that stand in line to
trade bitcoins. It is not as if there hasn't been similar issues with other
trading platforms. Remember the Facebook IPO issues, for example..

If anything, MtGox should be congratulated for executing a wildly successful
pivot.

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thom
Ironically, Mt. Gox appears to process vastly more transactions far more
reliably than Magic: the Gathering Online itself, with its infamous lag and
regular reboots. But hey, if Bitcoin crashes again, Magic is a great platform
for speculators:

[http://ark42.com/mtg/pricehistory.php?q=Sphinx%27s+Revelatio...](http://ark42.com/mtg/pricehistory.php?q=Sphinx%27s+Revelation&d=0)

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cpressey
Useful information to disseminate; however, I fear trying to "correct" the
popular perception on this would be quixotic, much like trying to change how
"begs the question" is used back to what it originally meant.

Descriptivistically, the "Mount Gox" backronym seems to have more currency.
(pun intended, but immediately regretted!)

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dirkk0
Oh - thanks for the info. I was under the impression it would be a pun towards
Fort Knox.

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lucb1e
That would have been rather ironic

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lostsock
Actually their official video about withdrawal methods disagrees with you /
wikipedia.

Right at the start she clearly says "Mount Gox" -
<http://vimeo.com/m/40056755>

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qznc
Then why the dot and the wierd lower- and uppercase mixture?

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TazeTSchnitzel
Because nobody refers to it as Magic The Gathering Online Exchange any more,
it is now "Mt. Gox" to most people, and their logo reflects that.

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bones6
You would be surprised at how many nobodies still refer to it by the old name.
It's also much funnier to say outloud.

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fnordfnordfnord
I don't care, there is no faster way to say it. Every other way I can imagine
is cumbersome.

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waylandsmithers
I really love that song by The Who. I think it's called "Teenage Wasteland"

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pravda
Wayland! The song is called Barbra O'Reilly, after Pete Townshend's second
wife.

Mt. Gox ~ Fort Knox

A bank or brokerage should have a name of weight and substance, to give
customers a sense of security.

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readme
Proof that changing your idea is OK if the circumstances are right!

