"Random" not working

Thanks for the link and shortcodes.

Is WPEngine your web host? If so, you will need to enable the “MySQL random” option or ask them to do it for you. They disable it by default because it can cause a bottleneck on large sites. I plan to use a better random method in the next major plugin update that won’t require the “MySQL random” approach.

No, Hostgator is the host for this site.

I checked with HostGator and it’s enabled by default.

I refreshed that page a few times and it works. It may be a browser caching issue. Try the page when logged out in Chrome Incognito mode or Firefox Private Browsing mode.

Well, now it’s not randomizing even when I refresh the cache each time.

Which testimonial plugin are you using on the memberships page?

It just randomized once for me… (I tried in Explorer and Safari on iPad / iPhone as well).

But when I tried refreshing again (even clearing the browser of cache / history) it still brings up the same set.

Not sure if there’s some kind of caching at the host level? I do not have any caching plugins enabled on the site itself.

I suppose there may be host-level query caching. I have a lot to learn about WordPress caching. I would think that it would be per visitor so you checking the page several times wouldn’t necessarily indicate a problem. Let me do some digging.

Just as an FYI, I tried from a different IP and it still brought up the same order of testimonials.

Thanks. At first glance, the WordPress cache is non-persistent. I am going to refactor the random query. Would you be willing to test that?

I’d be willing to test it.

I may have been barking up the wrong tree. Do you have a post re-ordering plugin installed? Like Post Types Order or Simple Custom Post Order or Intuitive Custom Post Order?

No, I do not.

I only have Akismet, Contact Form and a couple of other plugins (that have nothing to do with caching or post reordering).

Thanks. I discovered a conflict with Post Types Order that will override random order even if I refactored it so I’m wondering if the same is happening here with another plugin or your theme.

Let me figure out what to do next.

FYI – The theme is the Striking Multiflex theme: https://kaptinlin.com/themes/strikingr/

I believe this is fixed in version 1.16. Please update and let me know how it works for you.