When creating a database, one normalizes the tables for efficiency and to create relationships so that references are concrete and not too error prone.
So why is it that Haloscan's comment count degrades and eventually disappears after a few posts? HOW does that even happen? I mean, I can't complain too much about a free service, but I can't understand WHY that happens. Say you have a table that tallies the number of comments as well as the text, and that's how it's retrieved from the DB. Why would the number go away, but the posts stay the same? It just doesn't make any sense.
An atomic elbow from the top rope with a database 101 book attached to the arm on Haloscan's mysterious methodology.