I feel like the hunch about "login" being an act and "logon" being a state is getting at something...I also seem to think of "log in" as being a more system-specific thing, lwhereas "log on" is more general. Or there's some kind of nuance about the appropriateness of the two, depending on what exactly you're doing/using. As in, the library computers at my university say "Log in using your userID." I "log in" to my email, "log in" to a class instructional homepage, and likewise "log out" from all of them. Whereas my computer at home is "logged on" to the internet (as in "connected"), but my grandma, who has never touched a computer, is definitely not "logged on." Like, "logging in" is to a specific application, which requires a password or something, whereas "logging on" is to the internet or larger system in general. "I logged on to LJ, but I didn't log in." Then again, I just checked the very same library computer which told me to "log in," and it also says on the desktop "Please remember to log off!!" I guess in/out and on/off are not consistently paired. ??? Lauren PS - Could this be anything like the (describing an IRL situation) "waiting in line" vs. "waiting on line" variation? English prepositions confused about spatial metaphors? On Wed, 2 Mar 2005 12:00:50 -0500 Barry Wellman <wellman@chass.utoronto.ca> wrote:
It could be said that "login" is the act of connecting while "logon" is the state of being connected. Yet, I belive the 2 words are often used interchangeably, as in "Is Nancy logged in?"
Barry _____________________________________________________________________
Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
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---- Lauren Squires Linguistics Program University of Virginia *** http://polyglotconspiracy.net