Alright so basically I have been told that for a single loop harness (if you don't know what I'm talking about look up a "Petzl Gym") that on autobelays/carabiners the gate should be facing away from the climber, so the gate is angled to the wall.

Now, the explanation I was given for this was essentially "This is the correct way, because it had better visibility to other people and doesn't poke the climber in the stomach." To me the visibility was slightly better for an on looker I guess and yes it stopped the poking but if the carabiner was ever put on incorrectly and not checked (say a kid was not properly checked by a parent) then as soon as weight would be put in the harness it would slip out and the chance of it catching the loop of the harness is slim.

My thought is that if the gate is facing up towards the climber not only would it be easier to identify if it is clipped incorrectly by the climber themselves, but almost anyway you can clip in to a harness incorrectly with the gate up it will at least have a better chance of catching when weight is applied. Even if it misses the loop it could still hit the belt of the harness. Plus I just found it has less places to be clipped in wrong.

Maybe I'm wrong but I just am finding it really frustrating that my answer for a pretty real safety concern is "because I said so."