Which do you prefer?
- Sharps
- Flats
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voters
Flats are easier to work with to me, sharps are fine, but many keys with sharp in the name use double sharps.
For some reason flats have always made more sense to me. Like I would never in a million years think of Bb as A#, ew.
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So you would expect to see/use Gb instead of F# ?
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`Yep, depends on the note for me. Between C and D is Db, then Eb, but then for some reason F#.
I have no idea why this is!
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these 2 examples point out exactly why there is no use belonging to sharp or flat camps only
Lots of keys we like have flats, as we go from key of C major to F major , the real difference is B is now Bb, and this trend continues as we go around the wheel of fifths, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, and yes even Gb get added to our note selections, but travel the other direction on the wheel and from C major to G major , F becomes F#, and as we move thru the keys in that direction, we add the leading tone sharp of the next key, moving to D major we add C#, A major add G#, E major adds D#, and so on.
So no use preferring F# or Bb, eventually you will need Gb and A# too, its just a matter of time as you work your way thru the keys.
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B, E and A (mainly) flats F, C, G and D (mainly) sharps
Because those were in the scales I encountered most in my younger years while playing trumpet
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and the transposing instrument wasn’t even sounding those notes anyway
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Agreed that the preferred notation is context (key) dependent. But if context (key) is not known, then I would choose sharps. However, I don’t think there is any compelling argument for one over the other.
If the tuning slide was in the wrong position, I wasn’t playing any of the “known” notes 
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well I can’t help leaning to the flats, because I have read too many jazz charts, and very generally they are flat leaning too
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I’m okay with F# and to a lesser extent, C#. But their flat-spellings are pretty good for me too. F# and C# are usually the first “black notes” one learns on piano, so maybe that’s where my gut reaction comes from.
This thread was mostly for amusement, but where I’m coming from in my “preference” is:
If I saw a note spelled, eg: Bb I immediately, “know” where it is on the piano with zero hesitation. Compared to A#, I have to think about it for just a moment. Similarly, when I look at the black keys on a piano, Bb, Eb, Ab are definitely the “name” that comes to mind for those notes.
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Just starting on learning the notes on the keyboard, but yeah because of the gaps at B-C and E-F, I think Bb C# and Eb F#. The odd one out is G# / Ab and I haven’t got a preference yet.
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Ultimately it’s the same pitch so just personal preference. Let’s move on to enharmonic equivalence. 
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Double sharps for the win.
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How much sense that makes depends so strongly on what kind of music you make. It’s a tricky one…
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And my answer is: I have no such preference. Which one is easier/quicker to read depends on context. B major has a D# in it, C minor has Eb for example.
I’m guessing the reason for the wording of the question is that you’re thinking of one particular scenario: Listing out 12 pitches inside the octave, say in a UI that gives you 12 options somewhere or whatever. If these are assumed to be equal-tempered (reasonable) the choices are indeed arbitrary. In that case I prefer for the choices to all be adjacent on the chain of fifths. E.g.
Gb - Db - Ab - Eb - Bb - F - C - G - D - A - E - B - F# - C# - G# - D# - A#
Choose 12 contiguous ones on there. All sharps (F to A#) and all flats (Gb to B) is valid. So is, say Eb to G#. But like, don’t leave gaps in the chain like, putting A# and Eb in there. Makes it less intuitive.
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