Orphaned Comments Missing in edit-comments.php

[miqrogroove]

If the comments table contains rows that do not relate to the posts table, the comments rows are counted in the stats and paging, but the comments themselves are not displayed on the Comments screen. This would be akin to unattached media magically disappearing from the Media Library.

[scribu]

Unlike comments, images are hard-coded in the post content. That's why it makes sense to display unatached media.

Displaying orphaned comments is plugin territory.

[scribu]

What I'm trying to say is that an orphaned comment is caused by a database inconsistency, whereas a media item can be created without a parent post.

[scribu]

A (core) plugin could be written to check for all kinds of inconsitencies: orphaned comments, invalid author ids, messed up taxonomy tables etc.

[nacin]

These should always be in sync.