Helo Peter,
I use the latter, the eye, spliced into the rope and joined by shackle. My first attempts of this splicing made around 3 inches of splice which was frowned upon by others since it may have come apart..... I since let a friend do it properly and now it looks great, and serves the purpose very well
The only thing I may do, is put a zip tie on the shackle to stop it coming undone whilst it's on the bed by shaking around.
-Alex
