Template.hello.loggedin = function() { return something }
vs.
Template.hello.helpers({
'loggedin': function () { return something }
})
The former works (Template.hello.loggedin prints out the function in the console, adding parenthesis returns the something), the latter doesn't (gives undefined).
I thought these were equivalent??
They are equivalent except in the case you found. There is an open issue on github about this: https://github.com/meteor/meteor/issues/886.
If you want to call
Template.hello.loggedin()
use the former.