If you’re viewing this on the Web site, if you look to the right to the “Whatever Select Blend,” you’ll see a new link there called “Random Whatever.” If you click on that link, you’ll be taken to a random entry in the Whatever archives. The current archives go back to early 2002, so that’s a lot of random. And when you’re done, you can click on it again and get another random entry! It’s hours of fun for the whole family!
If you’re viewing this through RSS: YOU GET NOTHING.
Oh, don’t look at me like that, RSS people. I didn’t mean to make you sad. Here, this link will do the same thing. There, happy? Good.
Your randomness will be graded.
That is awesome! Thanks :-)
Unsurprisingly, the first random post contained a picture of a cat.
Second random post contained a picture of your house.
Ok, Scalzi, what is it? First you play with your ukelele, then your car, then you play with the website. Are you putting off something you don’t want to do???
As an RSS follower, I felt all sad for a while there… Thank goodness for that last line!
Happy reader via RSS is happy!
Luckily I mostly use RSS to be aware of new posts. Best of both worlds.
I got the All Hat No Cattle post from 2008.
Yes, because I needed MORE things to distract me online. Thanks a lot, Scalzi!
lithium is no longer available on credit.
Kudos. Now can you do the same for archived pics of Mr. Weiner’s various body parts?
Ew. No.
oh wait. I thought you want US to list our favorite random announcements. my bad.
I clicked and ended up on Wil Wheatons blog reading his brother talk about chickens. its been a surreal kind of day.
Very Funny! The random button brought me here first try: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2006/04/12/cut-off/
Article from 2006 about Sprint cut off your neighborhood from the internet.
The more things change etc.
You mean there’s NOTHING on the RSS feed? What the hell have I been reading all these years?
Anyway, if I want a Random Scalzi, I flip through Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded.
47
YOU LOSE! GOOD DAY, SIR!
(Sorry, but like an unclosed parentheses, this was driving me mad.
Sadly, my RW is taking me to an interview hosted on By the Way, which is no longer accessible.
RSS feeds are for the weak. I just go to every website I want to read in my browser.
On a serious note: I like this feature. I think I would like it even better if it were available from the top of the page (so that, if I get a random article that I’m already familiar with, it’s within easy reach… Damn I’m lazy.)
Neat! I’ve always appreciated the random function on sites I frequent, particularly webcomics, and I often miss it if it’s not there. It makes sense that what might tickle a reader might not occur (or seem important) to a creator, but I still kinda wish I could lazily hop around the Penny Arcade archives, for example. Thanks for this.
Wow, I got a thread on activist judges in California.
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/05/18/that-activist-judge/
I thought the button screwed up and gave me the post from the other day. The lack of progress on internet access and social issues is very depressing. My faith in humanity just went down a notch. Damn you random button!
Just as punishment for this evil button you created and the countless hours of wasted time it will no doubt cause I am delaying my kindle purchase of The Last Colony by a few days! Try and make that mini cooper car payment now!
The randomizer just sent me to two different articles on gay marriage, and finished off with a picture of San Francisco.
By which I conclude that even the randomizer knows the gays should be able to put a ring on it.
#24: If only the rest of the country could catch on so quickly…
I clicked on the button and was taken to something written “in lieu of a real entry.” I was cheated.
Easily the greatest commonality in the ones I’ve clicked so far is pictures of Athena. And that doesn’t even count the one at the top of every page!
Hi John! This is my first visit to your blog. I’m enjoying so far. The Random Whatever thingy is an excellent idea. I wish my blog were grown-up enough for a random post button to be worth anyone’s time. Ah well, someday, someday.
Also, Old Man’s War is a thoroughly enjoyable read. Thank you for writing it. : )
Can I have a shout out for those of us who still don’t really even know what an RSS is or how it works? I’m feeling kind of lonely here in the Bronze Age.
OK, I gotta admit, at first I thought this was a dumb idea, but after clicking the link once, twice, a dozen, ten dozen times, I’m kind of liking it.
Don’t really grasp the Random Archive button. Doesn’t everyone just go to the Archive Archive button, and go in as deep into the past as it lets you, and start reading toward the present.
(And then get a little worried because now they’re within two years of today, and they might run out of things to read?)