Title.
This could be useful as a forums time-killer.

Supporters
awsome_guy6856
Semi Support
n/a
No support
n/a

What exactly do you mean?

mtech22 wrote:

What exactly do you mean?

Like a link at the top saying “Random Forum Thread”, just like Scratch wiki’s “random page”

lovecodeabc wrote:

mtech22 wrote:

What exactly do you mean?

Like a link at the top saying “Random Forum Thread”, just like Scratch wiki’s “random page”

Oh, that'd be an interesting feature… would it only show threads from a specific time frame? Because if it showed a thread from 2013 it might lead to necroposting…

I feel like this is an unnecessary thing to add, even if it is supposed to have the use of being a “time killer”.

My workaround would be to just type a random number into the topic URL.
There are now about 457440 topics, so pick a random number between 1 and that to give you something.

I also think this would lead to necroposting if a random person who is new to the forums using it. They may think that they are being helpful answering someone's questions however they are actually bumping an answered topic to the top of the forums.

awesome-llama wrote:

I feel like this is an unnecessary thing to add, even if it is supposed to have the use of being a “time killer”.

My workaround would be to just type a random number into the topic URL.
There are now about 457440 topics, so pick a random number between 1 and that to give you something.

https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/discuss/topic/[random number here]/

457441 topics. Now 457442 topics. -snip-. Uh, is there a number of forum threads via the scratch api you can get?

pandacorn_owl wrote:

I also think this would lead to necroposting if a random person who is new to the forums using it. They may think that they are being helpful answering someone's questions however they are actually bumping an answered topic to the top of the forums.

They will scroll down and see. it’s answered.

lovecodeabc wrote:

awesome-llama wrote:

I feel like this is an unnecessary thing to add, even if it is supposed to have the use of being a “time killer”.

My workaround would be to just type a random number into the topic URL.
There are now about 457440 topics, so pick a random number between 1 and that to give you something.

https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/discuss/topic/[random number here]/

457441 topics. Now 457442 topics. -snip-. Uh, is there a number of forum threads via the scratch api you can get?

You could just knock on an extra ~100 or so per day…

I can see where you come from, but I don't think this is a necessity

First of all, the random page button on the wiki is quite a bit different from this, as the wiki is a source of information while this is a source of discussion. I could see it being a source of necroposts as well. While this could be a time killer, you'd land in places like TiMaC and Requests much too often, and those wouldn't be that fun to read (because TiMaC could be talking about something you aren't interested in, and requests is just shop forms).

So, this would be an interesting feature to have, but it's not neccesary.

ResExsention wrote:

lovecodeabc wrote:

awesome-llama wrote:

I feel like this is an unnecessary thing to add, even if it is supposed to have the use of being a “time killer”.

My workaround would be to just type a random number into the topic URL.
There are now about 457440 topics, so pick a random number between 1 and that to give you something.

https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/discuss/topic/[random number here]/

457441 topics. Now 457442 topics. -snip-. Uh, is there a number of forum threads via the scratch api you can get?

You could just knock on an extra ~100 or so per day…

Shifts in topic creation numbers

Support! We deserve the right to browse a random topic.

What if it only showed topics with more than 5 replies, or something like that?

awesome_guy6856 wrote:

Support! We deserve the right to browse a random topic.

What if it only showed topics with more than 5 replies, or something like that?

Adding your suport…

I think you mean an off-topic forum

lovecodeabc wrote:

pandacorn_owl wrote:

I also think this would lead to necroposting if a random person who is new to the forums using it. They may think that they are being helpful answering someone's questions however they are actually bumping an answered topic to the top of the forums.

They will scroll down and see. it’s answered.

If this were true we would get no necroposts ever

awesome_guy6856 wrote:

What if it only showed topics with more than 5 replies, or something like that?

Disagree, topics with barely any posts can still be useful/relevant. Maybe instead there's a feature where you can choose the range of posts in a topic, and the options could be like [0-10], [11-20], [21-40], [41-60], [61-100], [100+], or something like that, or maybe there's an input where you put any amount you want, like "Post Count Range: [0-40, 200+]". But I don't think this is necessary.

Ihatr wrote:

I can see where you come from, but I don't think this is a necessity

First of all, the random page button on the wiki is quite a bit different from this, as the wiki is a source of information while this is a source of discussion. I could see it being a source of necroposts as well. While this could be a time killer, you'd land in places like TiMaC and Requests much too often, and those wouldn't be that fun to read (because TiMaC could be talking about something you aren't interested in, and requests is just shop forms).

So, this would be an interesting feature to have, but it's not necessary.

Maybe there could be a filter for posts to choose which forum you want to pick a random page from (or just a “Go To Random Topic” button at the top of each forum as well as the main discuss page), and whether you want to be able to visit closed topics. I don't think necroposting can be solved within this suggestion; it needs to be addressed in general before this gets implemented.

also this is a subtopic (but not duplicate) of this. It has some good discussion …
and support. :P

IndianRuby718 wrote:

-snip-

also this is a subtopic (but not duplicate) of this. It has some good discussion …
and support. :P

Its talking about random projects. This is talking abut Forum Threads.

Tunde123 wrote:

IndianRuby718 wrote:

-snip-

also this is a subtopic (but not duplicate) of this. It has some good discussion …
and support. :P

Its talking about random projects. This is talking abut Forum Threads.

Well in the OP, yes, that's what it says it's about, but with the title “scratch.mit.edu/random” and some of the resulting discussion, I would say it's really about the whole site in general and it's various possible randomizers, making this a subtopic.

IndianRuby718 wrote:

Tunde123 wrote:

IndianRuby718 wrote:

-snip-

also this is a subtopic (but not duplicate) of this. It has some good discussion …
and support. :P

Its talking about random projects. This is talking abut Forum Threads.

Well in the OP, yes, that's what it says it's about, but with the title “scratch.mit.edu/random” and some of the resulting discussion, I would say it's really about the whole site in general and it's various possible randomizers, making this a subtopic.

Okay then.

pandacorn_owl wrote:

lovecodeabc wrote:

pandacorn_owl wrote:

I also think this would lead to necroposting if a random person who is new to the forums using it. They may think that they are being helpful answering someone's questions however they are actually bumping an answered topic to the top of the forums.

They will scroll down and see. it’s answered.

If this were true we would get no necroposts ever

What about when, in QaS, they get the info from another source and they forget to post?