I've heard lots of rip cut guides say that you should have your workpiece between the blade and the fence and the offcut on the free side of the blade.

The thing that bothers me about this advice is surely it should be based on which side is wider / narrower.

For example let's say I have a long board that is 200mm wide and I want to rip it into 4 strips of 50mm width, ignore the Kerf for this example. For the first cut should the there be ~150mm of wood between the blade and the fence or should there be ~50mm?