[inetknght]

What you define to be proper is likely not what I define to be proper. It's certainly a context-sensitive opinion.

The amount and location depends on what you want to do. Yes, just like a phone book, it needs whitespace. A notification window is not a paper phone book though. A paper phone book typically has a lot less whitespace than we're discussing here, so I'm not even sure if you're agreeing or disagreeing or trying to point something else out.