How to display random posts in the WordPress Loop
When displaying posts, sometimes it is helpful to use query_posts to display certain content from your site. This is especially useful when you are using WordPress as a CMS.
<?php query_posts("showposts=8&cat=49&orderby=rand"); ?>
<?php if (have_posts()) : ?><?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<h2><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h2>
<div class="body">
<?php the_content(); ?>
</div><!--body-->
<div class="meta">
<div class="left">
<p>Posted: <?php the_time(); ?> in <?php the_category(', '); ?> <?php comments_popup_link('No comments yet', '1 comment so far', '% comments so far (is that a lot?)', 'comments-link', 'Comments are off for this post'); ?></p>
</div>
</div><!--meta-->
<?php comments_template(); ?>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php else : ?>
<p><?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?></p>
<?php endif; ?>
In the first line, I say show me eight posts, from category 49, then order them in a random order. Nice and simple way to display random posts.
What you could do, is build a page that simply adds
<?php query_posts("orderby=rand"); ?>
And you would be given a random post whenever you landed on it.
