Patchbay Layout Etiquette

Not sure this topic belongs in here, but I feel like guys working in studios would have the best feedback.

I'm adding some outboard gear to a TT patch bay I have. This bay is not going to be normalled at all, it's a late addition and already has an entire row populated (so normaling is not an option, nor a desired function).

Looking for opinions, If I had to use one row to hold both the IN's and OUT's for some EQ's and Compressors...

1) On a 4-channel EQ, should I connect all the IN's first then all the OUTs? Ex.  [ 1in 2in 3in 4in 1out 2out 3out 4out ] or... [ 1in 1out 2in 2out 3in 3out 4in 4out ]?

2) May be a silly question but if the jacks are side by side for an i/o, should it read left-to-right IN OUT, or OUT IN? IN OUT seems more intuitive, but I know patch bays typically drop down from OUT(top row) down to IN (bottom row), but that's of course for normaling.

Thanks for any tips/advice.

I have seem it all kinds of different ways. To me  it's better to have it labeled properly so the jack matches the label. TYhat being said I prefer all the in's the be grouped so like 1-4 in then 1-4 out. But that's my personal taste. I also prefer  it so that in the outboard  gear patchbay the top row is always input to gear and the bottom row output of gear with  no normal between them

At Neve we generally used to try to reflect signal flow from top to bottom of the patch bay. Mic ins at the top, then line ins, then inserts, then groups, then masters. Horizontally reflected channel count

Cheers

Ian

An old neve tech buddy in new york told me it's like a waterfall, out of the top and into the bottom but I think standards switch as you cross oceans.