title: Is an overuse of nullable columns in a database a "code smell"?
body: <p>I'm just stepping into a project and it has a fairly large database backend.  I've started digging through this database and 95% of the fields are nullable.</p>
  
  <p>Is this normal practice in the database world?  I'm just a lowly programmer, not a DBA but I would think you would want to keep nullable fields to a minimum, only where they make sense.</p>
  
  <p>Is it a "code smell" if most columns are nullable?</p>