Matthew J.X. Malady’s Riff in the magazine this past weekend about lines (a k a “queues,” or those things you stand in while you wait to get on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland, say) inspired a lively discussion in the comments section. Lines are, Malady argues, “society’s great equalizer”; paying to skip to the front of them is a “horrendous” unfairness. (Though not all Times readers agree that line cutting is always wrong.)

But hiding within the comments accompanying Malady’s essay, another debate — one that his article did not address — bubbled up quietly: is it more correct to say “on line,” or “in line”?

The Times’s Stylebook weighs in on the matter definitively, saying:

Few besides New Yorkers stand or wait on line. In most of the English-speaking world, people stand in line. Use that wording.

But is the distinction simply geographical? When you see a row of people who seem to be waiting to order a coffee, do you ask one of them, “Are you on line,” or “Are you in line”? We want to hear from you, reader. So please participate in our informal survey below (and if you’re not from New York and yet you say “on line,” let us know in the comments section!).