[wp-hackers] GUID problem

[Mike Schinkel]

On Sep 1, 2010, at 9:14 PM, Lynne Pope wrote:
> But, as it is, a developer has used them for his shortlinks and I
> am just tasked with the job of cleaning up the database.

I'm confused. How cane some use WordPress's GUID for *short* links; aren't WordPress' GUIDs rather long?

And why is it such a big job?  Is the problem simply duplicates?  

And how many of these shortlinks are "in the wild" and need to be maintained compatible?

-Mike