Random Words is another completely futile plugin which aims to bring entropy and randomness into your pages and even posts.
Ever got bored by comment pages with the same "Joe said", "Jim said" all page long ? Wouldn't it be funnier and more attractive if it printed something randomly from "thought", "wrote", "said" and "commented" ? Here we are.
Random Words is a Wordpress Plugin allowing you to manage a number of lists with any items, and display random items from these lists. Everything is managed from within the Admin interface of your blog, in a very neat interface. It stores its data in two fields of Wordpress' built-in Options table, and displays random entries at no cost (no extra SQL query used to fetch items)
Get it
ozh-random-words.zip
Extract and upload to your blog, preserving directory structure if any.
Note: download counter here and stats on wordpress.org may differ and reflect the number of downloads before this plugin was hosted on the plugin directory
Activate it, go the options page and follow the instructions.
Use it
Use the following syntax :
- In .php documents :
<?php wp_ozh_randomwords('name_of_list') ?>
If you want the result returned but not echoed, add a second parameter with value zero :
<?php $test = wp_ozh_randomwords('name_of_list', 0) ?> - In Posts or Pages :
[random:name_of_list]
I don't see any reasonable use for this in posts, but well, I had to do it :)
Watch it
For example, I created a list named "you_are" with the following entries :
-
a nice person
-
a <em>porn star</em>
-
so <em>cute</em> !
-
<span style="color:purple">teh master of teh intarweb</span>
-
reloading the page
-
pretty. Well, sort of.
In this page I wrote :
-
I see, I see ... that you are [ random: you_are ]
The result is (reload to see it change) :
I see, I see ... that you are pretty. Well, sort of.
Keep list names short and avoid funky characters, but use anything including HTML in the entries. It has to be one-liners, but you can insert a manual <br/>
Push it
A few suggestions, or examples of use (name of the list, followed by items of the list)
-
trackback: trackback, pingback, chmlmlback, stuffback, sumthinback, trackpingback
-
comment: wrote, said, replied, thought, commented
-
emphasis: extremely, wickedly, awesomely, completely
You could also use it as a Quote of the Second script : create a list named "quotes" and add entries like :
-
<em>640K ought to be enough for anybody.</em><br />»<strong>Bill Gates</strong>, 1981
-
<em>A fast word about oral contraception. I asked a girl to go to bed with me, she said 'no'.<br />»<strong>Woody Allen</strong>, yesterday
-
...
Tell me
Got a suggestion, a bug report, something to tell, to thank or to complain about ? Using this plugin on your blog ? Made something fun with it ? Tell me !
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pingback on 30/Jun/07 at 12:12 pm # :
[...] Visit [...]
pingback on 12/Jul/07 at 3:53 pm # :
[...] onledig gehouden met het verzinnen van “random words” voor hier op mijn blog. Je kan het dink overal voor gebruiken tot in de reacties toe. Meer verklap ik niet. Zo geestig. F5-en rulez! En zie [...]
pingback on 23/Jul/07 at 7:37 am # :
[...] Random Words es un plugin para Wordpress que permite manejar listas con cierto número de elementos, y mostrar elementos aleatorios de cualquiera de ellas. Se maneja desde la interfaz del admin y se puede citar cuantas veces y en cualquier parte que se desee, hasta lograr cuanto entropismo de contenido pueda parecer necesario. Random Words es también nuestro about que es una lista de citas aleatorias distribuidas en la página. estas han sido seleccionadas por su elocuencia y valor descontextual. es un sampler. y un looper, para verlo, F5. Algunas de las frases pueden ser fácilmente reconocidas, otras menos. La lista esta abierta a sugerencias. Pueden comentarlas o enviarlas a about|en|ritalink|punto|org tags// [...]
wrote, on 03/Aug/07 at 3:31 pm # :
Hi i just installed the plugin and activatet it, but when i go to options -> random words i just get an empty 404-page. what can i do?
commented, on 03/Aug/07 at 7:23 pm # :
navayo » don't know... Install properly, perhaps ?
pingback on 20/Aug/07 at 7:05 pm # :
[...] Random Words : adds the ability to play with ‘random’ lists without to much hassle. I’m sure I shall think of some neat ways to use it. Either that or it stays ‘disabled’ until eternity. ;) [...]
said, on 26/Sep/07 at 1:02 am # :
I was wondering if this works with Wordpress 2.3? I've been trying to add it to my comments but so far I haven't been able to get random words to show up.
replied, on 26/Sep/07 at 8:41 pm # :
FD » works fine on my 2.3 installs (should work on 1.5 up to 2.5)
thought, on 26/Sep/07 at 9:05 pm # :
Thanks for the response. It's entirely possible and probable that I'm doing something wrong. Basically, I'm just trying to place it in my comments and have it replace the typically "said" with something I choose. Is there any chance you can tell me where exactly I need to put this to make it happen? I'm using the Vistered Little 1.7.6 theme and Wordpress 2.3.
Thanks.
wrote, on 27/Dec/07 at 6:29 am # :
hi OZH,
i tried it but in posts apears always the complete list, not only one random word of the list. What could be wrong ?
Is it always necessary to integrate the "" part or the "[random:name_of_list]" paart works alone also ?
thought, on 28/Dec/07 at 7:22 pm # :
interesting. how difficult would it be to make this plugin return a random member of your WP blog? for example, if i wanted to hold contests like: sign up now! random winners chosen daily.
replied, on 28/Dec/07 at 10:06 pm # :
rayven » such a plugin wouldn't be difficult to do (before you might ask: no, I cant' do it) but Random Words would not even be an interesting start for it. The only code they would share would probably be a one liner randomizer function.
wrote, on 05/Jan/08 at 4:20 am # :
Had loads of fun with this! Thanks so much. I put it in my title tags and comments worked great. I want to duplicate the fun in my RECENT COMMENTS on my sidebar - so far to no avail.
this is my code and it won't show up!
%comment_author: %comment_excerpt
any ideas? thanks.
g.
replied, on 05/Jan/08 at 4:22 am # :
i think i'm dead. so sorry!
let me try again:
Had loads of fun with this! Thanks so much. I put it in my title tags and comments worked great. I want to duplicate the fun in my RECENT COMMENTS on my sidebar - so far to no avail.
this is my code and it won't show up!
[code]
%comment_author: %comment_excerpt
[code]
wrote, on 08/Apr/08 at 9:06 am # :
I had the "page not found" problem on first installing the plugin. Moving it out of the containing folder, so the file sits loose in the plugins folder made it behave itself.
pingback on 02/Jul/08 at 11:55 am # :
[...] Ozh’ Random Words: ???Wordpress??????. [...]
pingback on 11/Jul/08 at 3:34 am # :
[...] ???????. Quote Rotator: ???Wordpress??????. Ozh’ Random Words: ???Wordpress??????. Favourite Bible Verses: ????????. Tinin [...]
pingback on 14/Jul/08 at 1:49 pm # :
[...] Ozh’ Random Words: ???Wordpress??????. [...]
pingback on 12/Aug/08 at 4:16 am # :
[...] Ozh’ Random Words: ???Wordpress??????. [...]
commented, on 15/Aug/08 at 10:55 am # :
Hi, Could this plugin be adapted to generate random words? I'd really like a WP plugin that allows me to have a box on a page of my Wordpress website in which a random word is inserted whenever the page is viewed. Is that possible? (Thanks for adding to the wealth of Wordpress wonderfulness!)