vBulletin LTS

Random Thread - Allows users to view a random thread on your forum.
Mod Version: 1.00, by MrEyes

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.