UESPWiki:Administrator Noticeboard/Archives/Random Page Link

Random Page Link

Has somebody done something to affect the Random Page link? If you hit that link, it shows a page at random, but then shows the same page the next few times you hit the link, before eventually changing to a new random page? --Gaebrial 03:43, 25 January 2008 (EST)
:I'm guessing it's a side effect of the new squid cache that was implemented yesterday to improve site performance.  Given that wikipedia uses squid caching and their random page link seems to update every time, it must be possible to specify somewhere that random page bypasses the cache... but I have no idea where at this point since I have almost no idea how our fancy new setup is working ;) Hopefully Daveh can look into it this weekend. --Nephele  12:31, 25 January 2008 (EST)

:It was just working fine for me, both logged in and not. Try again and see if it is still broken for you. It may have been a temporary side effect of changing the site's DNS entry. -- Daveh 13:10, 25 January 2008 (EST)

::I just tried it and it didn't work for me. The same page appeared eight times before a new one showed up. --Mankar Camoran  13:15, 25 January 2008 (EST)

:::I get the same thing. Also, while we're on the subject, I've started getting talk pages from it too - I'm sure it always used to give out only articles in subject spaces. –Rpeh  13:35, 25 January 2008 (EST)
::::I'm getting that too, where it gives me the same page several times in a row before picking a new one.  Also, I've been getting talk pages from it for ages...maybe one of us is crazy? ;) --Eshe 16:07, 25 January 2008 (EST)

:::::While we are at it, it might also be better to rename it to "Random article". --Mankar Camoran  16:37, 25 January 2008 (EST)

::::::I always got talk pages along with regular ones, as well as short sub-pages (e.g. /Description and /Author pages) all the time.  One reason I've not made very much use of the feature.  I very rarely get any actual article pages with it.  I'd be just as happy if the feature were removed entirely, at least the way it is now.  If it could be programmed to omit Talk pages and sub-pages, it might be worth keeping around, but as it is, it's nearly useless, I think. --TheRealLurlock   16:44, 25 January 2008 (EST)

:::::::I believe that idea was brought up a while back but I was never able to look into it more. It should be possible once I have some time to do it. -- Daveh 18:06, 25 January 2008 (EST)

:Ok, I get the same thing now. It seems that IE and Firefox have this issue but not Opera which is why I didn't see it when I tested it last. This is most likely an issue with the Squid caching the page when it isn't supposed to. -- Daveh 16:41, 25 January 2008 (EST)

::I'm getting the same thing with the latest Opera too now. And having downloaded it I notice all the things that don't work about our layout - breadcrumb trails overlapping the dividing line, the main logo being partly overlapped by the big column etc etc... –Rpeh  18:12, 25 January 2008 (EST)

:::UPDATE: I was testing the Random page link again, and it brought me to the Imperial Guard Talk page or something like that. I read it for about 20 seconds, and then I hit random page again, then I was brought to the Wabbajack page! It worked! So I hit it again, then it didn't work. What happened to make it work once, then fail? --Playjex 12:10, 27 January 2008 (EST)
::::I think there's a brief span after you hit it for the first time where all it wants to do is give you the same page.  (Hope you all can navigate my complicated technical lingo ;).)  I was doing that last night, too, and if you just wait a bit it works again.  Also, the problem seems to come and go, for me at least--at some points during the day, I wasn't having any trouble with it at all. --Eshe 12:33, 27 January 2008 (EST)
Thank you for replying. I do not know if this has to do with this problem, but what type of Internet service do you have? (Verizon, Optimum, IE, Firefox etc.) --Playjex 13:47, 27 January 2008 (EST)

::::Someone should look into coding the Random page to only go to non-discussion pages. :P --24.59.255.2 16:12, 27 January 2008 (EST)

:Well, it doesn't take you to a Talk/Discussion page EVERY time. --Playjex 19:03, 27 January 2008 (EST)

::Is it me, or is it FULLY working again? --Playjex 14:31, 20 February 2008 (EST)
:::It's working for me too. I imagine one of Daveh's recent changes fixed it. –Rpeh  14:39, 20 February 2008 (EST)