Random Thread - Allows users to view a random thread on your forum.
 

Random Thread
v1.0 BETA

Description

This mod will place a phrased 'Random Thread' link under the Forum section of the navbar. If the user clicks this link they will be taken to a random thread on your forum.

This modifications respects user forum permissions therefore a user will not be taken to a thread they are not allowed to see.

You can also:

• Configure forums to be excluded from Random Thread (CMS comments forum is auto excluded)
• Globally enabled/disable the modification
• Set a maximum thread age (in days) - setting this means that only thread newer than the configured age will be selected.
• Set a minimum reply count - setting this means that only threads with more (or equal to) the configured value will be randomly selected.

Installation

Installation is simple, just download the attached product XML file and import as normal.

Why BETA? (Tech Alert!)

While developing this modification it became obvious that the MySQL rand function simply did not perform well enough to make this usuable on larger forums. As such the mod selects out all thread identifiers that the user can see and then PHP does the random selection.

Although the functionality is useful, my concerns with rand etc are the reason for the modification having options to restrict by reply count and thread age.

I have run this on my forum for a few days and not seen any real impact, however it seems sensible to get feedback from other admins before committing this modification to gold.

Reserved, for what purpose I do not yet know

is there any screenshot ?

link or screenshot please, thanks

maybe a widget or side block for this?

No screenshot necessary, visually all the mod does is add a link under "Forum" titled "Random Thread". If the user clicks they are taken to a random thread.

Does this work on 3.x versions. The other one does not.

Thanks.

Probably not, this was developed on 4.x so I haven't tried it on 3.x

Thanks,

Can you make it so the random thread URL/link is actually displayed, instead of the link to click so a random thread gets displayed.

I think having the random thread title show up would get more user interest, rather than having a link to display a random thread. Users would turn a blind eye to that after some time.

On this note, how about have it be a hyperlinked thread title?

I like it.