How come when I'm viewing a forum post, I can click "Sign in" but when I'm viewing an article it's "Sign on"?

 When I click "Sign out", is the forum software trying to "Sign out" an undefined "Sign in", and then leaving my "Sign on" hanging without signing it "off"? (It's late, and the NyQuil's just kicked in).
 

Those are different programs. Alex made the program for the frontpage all by himself, while the forums run on community server.

boolean:

How come when I'm viewing a forum post, I can click "Sign in" but when I'm viewing an article it's "Sign on"?

 When I click "Sign out", is the forum software trying to "Sign out" an undefined "Sign in", and then leaving my "Sign on" hanging without signing it "off"? (It's late, and the NyQuil's just kicked in).
 

That's been bugging me for a while. Fortunately I don't see it switch once I'm logged in. 

I suppose they should match -- but this is something that has always bothered me. In general, I have no idea what to use. Windows uses Log On/Off. ASP.NET uses Log In/Out (for the Login control) and Sign On/Out (for the Authentication provider). And everything else uses something at random.

What do you use? Why?

I use Login/Logout for no particular reason at all other than most of the sites I visit use that terminology.

For this site, I'd just change your custom portion to match CommunityServer.  One less thing to deal with if/when you upgrade CommunityServer. 

 

I think I'd use "Sign In" as well. "Log on" or "Sign on" sounds like a long-term thing ("Sign on with the army!"), where Sign in brings a more fitting image to my mind (Signing in at the doctor's office...it's a short-term acknowledgment of your presence). Plus, as someone else mentioned, if it's easier to match your software to the harder-to-modify one, I'd say do it =)

The good news is that it's been discussed to death and there are guidelines on usage:

http://discuss.fogcreek.com/joelonsoftware1/default.asp?cmd=show&ixPost=19480&ixReplies=20

 The bad news is that the guidelines aren't necessarily consistent and there's no consensus.

I have chosen not to give signin signout options.

I leave them to Hack thier way in and leave it signed in for the next hacker.