https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20208
Summary: Special:Random does not include all pages on large wikis
Product: MediaWiki
Version: unspecified
Platform: All
OS/Version: All
Status: NEW
Severity: enhancement
Priority: Normal
Component: Special pages
AssignedTo: wikibugs-l@lists.wikimedia.org
ReportedBy: ap...@apper.de
Special:Random gives you a special page from the wiki. This depends on a random
number between 0 and 1 (page_random) stored in the page table with 12 decimal
places. This is created using wfRandom() in GlobalFunctions.php, where the
comment states: "Get a random decimal value between 0 and 1, in a way not
likely to give duplicate values for any realistic number of articles.". This is
not true. For example on de.wikipedia we currently have more than 30 articles
having the same page_random like another article.
Of course you can create 1.000.000.000.000 different random numbers with 12
decimal places, but it's not unlikely to have a number twice when generating
them using a random function.
This is not a big problem, but there are currently some articles in
de.wikipedia which will never occur when clicking "Random article". I think at
en.wikipedia this is the same and so its not really a "random article".
Maybe it would be a solution to check, if the random number already exists and
take another one, if yes. As said, there are enough possibilities...
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