I've seen people online claim that table saw fences should not extend very far past the rear-most part of the blade. They say that kickback is largely due to the fence being too long.
This doesn't make sense to me. I get that the piece will be less likely to get trapped between the blade and the fence, but if the front of the piece were to move past the plane of the fence, presumably the back end could be picked up by the blade.
Will a shorter fence reduce the likelihood or severity of kickback?
Here's the relevant part of a comment on this article:
Another obvious flaw: rip fences are too long. There is no good reason to have the rip fence extend beyond the cut. Doing so invites kickback.
Also, I really thought John Heisz mentioned something about a shorter fence on his table saw, but now I can't find it. Maybe it was in a video.