The debate started when I turned left of an airfield (at about 10 miles out) so I could position myself for the initial approach for the overhead join. The pilot I was with told me that if I was already lined up on the deadside leg just go straight on and call overhead when abeam the runway deadside... (His view was why make it more difficult if you are already on the runway heading)
This was discussed on here in some detail a while back. If you approach the airfield deadside, and descend before reaching the airfield then what you are doing is technically a cross wind join. In practice I've found there's nothing wrong with that, and at airfields that require an overhead join they seem happy with the cross wind join when approaching deadside. This is the way I tend to fly it.
If you absolutely have to perform an overhead join, and you are arriving from deadside then you should overfly the airfield, at circuit join height (usually 2000ft QFE) and do a 180 when you get to the live side, to go back to the deadside where you perform your descent to circuit height.
However, in the world of flying this is all open to interpretation and one man's "normal aviation practice" can be another's "I've never seen airmanship like it". As long as you stay safe that's the important thing.