Random questions within AskMe categories

February 12, 2015 1:47 PM

From what I can tell, the last improvement to the Random option was allowing users to search for random posts within their favorites. I have always dreamed of having the option to pull up random AskMe questions within a specific category archive. (When I want to get my human relations fix on, I don't feel like wading through computer questions from 10 years ago.) Is this something that would be easy enough to implement? Is anyone else interested in this?
posted by Neely O'Hara to Feature Requests at 1:47 PM (20 comments total)

Yeah, I think we could do this somehow. The last time around it was hidden links you could put in a bookmark. I could do that again. We could also potentially find a spot for them on the site somewhere.
posted by pb (staff) at 1:48 PM on February 12, 2015

Like if you navigate to the landing page of a category there would be a button for a random question in that category?
posted by bleep at 2:03 PM on February 12, 2015

I would use the absolute crap out of this. Thanks, Neely! Thanks in advance, pb!
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 2:09 PM on February 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

Just like that? Ponytastic.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 2:28 PM on February 12, 2015

I was totally hitting the "random" link multiple times in a row today and thinking the same thing as bleep...Well, for cat questions, but "pets & animals" would have been close enough...
posted by msbubbaclees at 2:36 PM on February 12, 2015

I added a random link to category pages just after the page count. If you'd like to make your own bookmark, just put /random after the category page URL, like this:

http://ask.metafilter.com/human-relations/random
posted by pb (staff) at 2:54 PM on February 12, 2015 [22 favorites]

Well, that got interesting quickly...
posted by Solomon at 3:05 PM on February 12, 2015

WOW!! That is just super nifty, and I had no idea it would happen that quickly. Thanks, pb - and there go the remaining shreds of my productivity.
posted by Neely O'Hara at 3:11 PM on February 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Whoa! Someone want to work out the odds of me hitting that link and pulling up one of my own questions on the first try?
posted by heyho at 3:46 PM on February 12, 2015

See? I was right.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:34 PM on February 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

This is an excellent pony!
posted by bleep at 4:49 PM on February 12, 2015

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! This is fantastic!

... any chance the link could also appear on individual pages, maybe right after the category in the tagline at the end of the post?

posted by someonecool to Education [ random ] (11 answers total) [add to favorites] [!]

That way I could just keep clicking random over and over and over again.

This is SO COOL. Thanks for the pony request, Neely O'Hara, and pb, thanks for the instantaneous implementation! You ROCK.
posted by kristi at 4:57 PM on February 12, 2015

any chance the link could also appear on individual pages...

No, sorry. The bylines there already have quite a few controls. You could try clicking the Random link in the header for continuous random goodness. Or if you want posts only from a specific category you could create a browser bookmark and keep clicking that.
posted by pb (staff) at 5:46 PM on February 12, 2015

THANK YOU for this! I've wanted it too. Hooray!
posted by tomboko at 6:01 PM on February 12, 2015

Such a fast pony! This is great - thank you (OP for asking, and pb for making it so).
posted by rtha at 7:12 PM on February 12, 2015 [2 favorites]

Dammit, pb, the glue supply is getting low.
posted by Jahaza at 6:30 AM on February 13, 2015

I added a random link to category pages just after the page count.

Yay that's cool.
posted by jessamyn (retired) at 7:03 AM on February 13, 2015

Oohoooohoohoho...

This is amazing! There goes all of my spare time. Thanks!!
posted by kimberussell at 7:45 AM on February 13, 2015

First the random button gets moved to a useable spot on the mobile site in the redesign, then this! So wonderful, it is the Year of the Random.
posted by charmedimsure at 7:49 AM on February 13, 2015

yay, something to do while feeding a baby in the middle of the night instead of just waiting for someone to ask something interesting. :-D
posted by treehorn+bunny at 4:20 PM on February 13, 2015