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...
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.