Opinions please, preferred pattern joining methods

I'm with McNicholl on this one, technically it would probably be a
crosswind entry. But it depends. Listen to the radio. Where is the
other traffic? The idea is an orderly flow of aircraft around the
pattern. Whatever else you do, enter behind one of the other planes and
make sure you don't cut anyone off. I am one of these people that
believe that if there is no one around, you can fly to the center of
the runway and do a "midfield" crosswind entry if the downwind is on
the other side of the field from you. And this works fine if there is
no one around to cut off. Or if you know where all the other airplanes
are and you wont interfere.

If in doubt, the best thing would be to fly to the other side of the
airport well north of the pattern and enter the downwind at a 45. This
is what I would do if I approached and there were a lot of radio
position calls indicating a lot of traffic in the pattern.