Sorry to pine users...
Taking the SQL query used in Special:Randompage from CVS and modifying it very
slightly...
SELECT cur_id,cur_title,cur_random
FROM cur USE INDEX (cur_random)
WHERE cur_namespace=0 AND cur_is_redirect=0
AND cur_random>RAND()
ORDER BY cur_random
LIMIT 20
returns...
cur_id cur_title cur_random
124125 Pierce,_Nebraska 0.0030205277754185
205997 Wagh_el_Birket 0.00385735184313483
120605 Custer_Township,_Minnesota 0.00416424684614339
131375 Lorane,_Pennsylvania 0.00439120363853053
150887 Columbiana,_Ohio 0.00589350611520326
53913 Castle_Rock 0.00614019670164231
10438 Komyo 0.00616735406794339
131027 Newberg,_Oregon 0.00645017624502087
120060 Hartland_Township,_Minnesota 0.00903007575220435
126590 Osceola,_New_York 0.00905275718220766
It doesn't always return the same articles, but they're always very low-numbered.
I don't know about you, but I would call that a MySQL bug.
May I make a suggestion, while we're on the topic? How about changing the query to:
SELECT cur_id,cur_title,cur_random
FROM cur USE INDEX (cur_random)
WHERE cur_namespace=0 AND cur_is_redirect=0
AND cur_random>{$rand} AND cur_user<>3903 AND cur_user<>6120
ORDER BY cur_random
LIMIT 20
which will skip anything last edited by Ram-Man or Rambot. Like Daniel Mikkelsen said, the
most important function for Special:Randompage is to impress passers-by. We should rig it
any way we can to make Wikipedia look better.
-- Tim Starling.