Getting Navigation to work with random post order

I have written some sample code that shows how to do this. You can see it here:

https://wordpress.mcdspot.com/2011/12/24/consistent-random-set-of-posts/

You will need to modify it to fit your theme.

Thanks for the response. I’ll look into what you posted.

Ok. Looking at what you posted, will this work?

$seed = gregoriantojd(date('h'),date('m'),date('d'),date('Y'));
$args = array(    'orderby' => rand($seed) );
query_posts($args);

hmmm….
That one did not work. Page one and page two are the same. All the pages are the same.

Your suggestion will not work. WP ignores the ‘orderby’ unless it exactly matches its known choices, i.e. it will only match ‘rand’, not rand(something).

You must use the filter to replace the rand(), as I showed in the sample code.

What benefit/usage is there to randomizing post order?

I am an artist and want all of my work to have equal exposure and not just the recent works. So when a visitor views any of my category archive pages, it displays a random sampling of images within the gallery.

You can see it at my site. https://theviolent.net

vtxyzzy, here is what finally worked

$seed = gregoriantojd(date('h'),date('m'),date('d'),date('Y'));
$paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
$args = array('orderby' => rand($seed),'paged' => $paged );
query_posts($query_string .'&'. $args);

I see…how does this work for SEO?

@giant slayer: The code you posted gives me a PHP warning:

Warning: rand() expects exactly 2 parameters, 1 given in C:\xampp\htdocs\test\wp-content\themes\twentyten-child\testphp.php on line 35

The resulting query does not give a random set for me.

Yeah, it did not for me either. I thought it did. You are right about the filter. So I will go back to what you posted and try to figure out how to make it work with my stuff.

One question.
query_posts($query_string . '&orderby=rand');
In my original query, I have my $query_string which has values passed to it from WordPress. How do I add the random from your code and still keep the value in the $query_string?

That query should work just fine as-is.

Just ignore the $args array in the sample file.

When I use your query, my category value passed to me from WordPress is lost. It is in the $query_string variable.

If your query_posts() looks like this:

query_posts($query_string . '&orderby=rand');

your original values should not be lost.

Please put your code into a pastebin and post a link to it here so I can see the entire file.

Here is the link.
https://pastebin.com/6AU62BEq