selecting 10 random online users (is very difficult)

[Tae-Hwan]

i have found no simple way to do this. i'd really love to have someone come along and make me feel very, very stupid... because i have been working on this for several days without avail.

SELECT DISTINCT ... ORDER BY RAND(NOW())

does not work on any version of mysql.

  $loggedins2=$DB_site->query("SELECT DISTINCT session.userid,username,invisible
                              FROM session
                              LEFT JOIN user ON (user.userid=session.userid)
                              WHERE session.userid>0 AND session.lastactivity>$datecut AND invisible != 1
                              ORDER BY RAND(NOW())");

^ this is what i'd like to have on index.php

thanks in advance for your help.