If you want a quick way to show off your number of comments you can add this to your sidebar.php
<?php
$commcount = $wpdb->get_var("SELECT COUNT(*) FROM $wpdb->comments WHERE comment_approved = '1'");
if (0 < $commcount) $commcount = number_format($commcount);
echo "Our users have made ".$commcount." comments, care to join in?";
?>
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